Even though Independence Day is now past, we know shooting off bottle rockets and Roman candles during summer vacation is fun. We get it.

But shooting fireworks on the beach can be dangerous. Fireworks are involved in about 10,000 injuries treated in U.S. hospitals each year, and about 7,000 of those occur in the four weeks surrounding the Fourth of July.

Fireworks also leave behind a mess. Those little pieces of paper litter the beach after a night of exploding, flying and sparkling fireworks. In addition, the wrappers, cans, boxes and other debris are left behind after a night of celebration.

A couple of years ago, volunteers from the group Coastsavers cleaned up a Washington state beach town after the Fourth of July weekend. What did they find? Seventy-five tons of trash collected within a few days. An observer wrote that the normally tranquil beaches looked more like a war zone during the celebration as visitors lit off stockpiles of explosives.

Fireworks are fun, but please don’t bring them to the beach. Not only are they dangerous and leave behind a mess, but they are also illegal.