KEY POINTS:
Most New Zealand adults support a ban on the sale of fireworks.
Research company UMR conducted a nationwide public opinion poll and found 63 per cent of the 750 respondents think firework sales to the general public should be banned, agreeing only to organised public displays.
The survey showed 66 per cent of women object strongly to firework sales, compared with 55 per cent of men. The survey allowed for a 3.6 per cent margin of error.
Last week, the Government and Opposition both spoke out about the potential for a ban.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said cases like that of a 1-year-old, who received burns to 8 per cent of her body when a firework exploded in her pram, were distressing.
"At some point, public tolerance for this will boil right over."
Opposition leader John Key said he believed a ban was inevitable. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old Whangarei boy remains in a serious condition in Middlemore Hospital when firecrackers he was holding exploded.
Northland St John operations manager Donna Austin said an ambulance crew called to an address in , Tikipunga found the boy had suffered an explosive injury to his right hand and possible damage to an eardrum on Wednesday night.
He was transferred to Middlemore for plastic surgery but it's understood there is little likelihood of his fingers being salvaged. Ms Austin would not name the teenager but said he was not at his home address when the fireworks exploded.
"It's a real shame. I thought we might have got through this Guy Fawkes period without something like this happening," she said.
- NZPA