ST. PAUL, Minn. - The fliers and billboards beckon the public to buy fireworks for their Fourth of July celebrations, but the Sight & Hearing Association wants to remind Minnesotans that explosive, aerial consumer fireworks - such as bottle rockets and firecrackers - are still illegal and dangerous.

According to an annual survey of Minnesota hospitals by the state fire marshal, 20 fireworks injuries were reported in 2001. In 2002, when certain types of fireworks became legal in Minnesota, that number jumped to 92. Last year, in 2004, that number climbed to 111 injuries because of fireworks.

Overall, approximately 8,000 fireworks-related injuries occur each year in the United States. Of those, 2,000 are eye injuries caused by consumer fireworks. One-third of those eye injuries result in permanent blindness.

Permanent blindness is something Jody Eder-Zdechlik of Lakeland, Minn., knows all about. Forty years ago, at the age of 2, she was blinded in her right eye when a bottle rocket struck her. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "Just an innocent bystander, but in the direct path of the bottle rocket."

Like Eder-Zdechlik, not all victims happen to be the person setting them off. In fact, 40 percent of fireworks injuries are to innocent bystanders. Bottle rockets, which can move as fast as 200 mph, account for nearly 75 percent of injuries.

"One of the reasons fireworks injuries continue to occur is because people don't think about how dangerous these devices can be," said Jeffrey Stephens, M.D., an ophthalmologist with Eye Physicians & Surgeons and board member of the Sight & Hearing Association. "I've seen several people injured from fireworks over the years. The risk of losing an eye is not worth the excitement of watching fireworks explode."

The Sight & Hearing Association says the safest and most spectacular way to view fireworks is through professionally conducted, community-sponsored fireworks displays.

A bill signed into law in 2002 makes it legal for Minnesotans to buy and use nonexplosive, nonaerial fireworks, such as sparklers, glow worms, party-poppers, snappers and fountains.

The Minnesota-based Sight & Hearing Association (SHA), founded in 1939, is dedicated to preventing the needless loss of vision and hearing in all Minnesotans through education, screening and research.