CANPTT welcomes passage of Fireworks Regulation Bill

Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CANPTT) has wel­comed the pas­sage of the Fire­works Reg­u­la­tion Bill in Par­lia­ment. The group said the de­vel­op­ment fol­lowed years of ad­vo­ca­cy, pub­lic con­cern and harm to cit­i­zens and an­i­mals.

In a state­ment, CANPTT said the leg­is­la­tion marks recog­ni­tion that un­reg­u­lat­ed fire­works have caused dis­tress to in­fants, the el­der­ly, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, pets and wildlife. The group said the bill rep­re­sents progress and not­ed the move by the Gov­ern­ment.

CANPTT said that while the bill ad­dress­es fire­works use, a wider is­sue con­tin­ues to af­fect com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try. The group said thou­sands of cit­i­zens still face con­stant noise in res­i­den­tial ar­eas from bars, fetes, car shows, sound offs and am­pli­fied events. Ac­cord­ing to the or­gan­i­sa­tion, this noise en­ters homes, dis­rupts fam­i­lies, af­fects health and lim­its rest.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion called for fur­ther ac­tion, say­ing the pass­ing of the bill should be viewed as a start­ing point. CANPTT said reg­u­la­tion must be ex­pand­ed to in­clude con­tin­u­ous noise pol­lu­tion that af­fects cit­i­zens through­out the year.

CANPTT said it is ready to sup­port ad­di­tion­al leg­is­la­tion aimed at pro­tect­ing cit­i­zens in their homes. The group said peace and safe­ty should be viewed as rights and not priv­i­leges.