Poison and Overdose Prevention
More than 60,000 young children visit emergency rooms each year because of medication poisonings.
Unintentional poisoning includes the unsupervised ingestion of drugs or chemicals, "overdoses" or the excessive use of a drug and exposure to environmental substances.
The most common poisons include prescription and over-the-counter medications, cleaning products and personal care products. Eighty percent of incidents occur when a child eats or swallows over-the-counter and prescription medicines when an adult wasn't watching.
Children are poisoned by pills or liquid medicine left unattended on countertops and tables, loose in purses or found on the floor. In 2008, poison control centers reported receiving calls about 2.5 million human poison exposure cases.
Protect your children
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Store medicines and vitamins up and away, out of reach and out of sight of young children. Find a place in your home that is too high for children to reach or see. Walk around your house and decide on the safest place to keep your medicines and vitamins. For more information on medicine storage, visit Up and Away Resources Page.
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Put medicines and vitamins away every time you use it. This includes medicines and vitamins you use every day. Never leave them out on a kitchen counter or at a sick child’s bedside, even if you have to give the medicine again in a few hours.
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Tell your children what medicine is and why you must be the one to give it to them. Never tell children medicine is candy to get them to take it, even if your child does not like to take his or her medicine.
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Listen for the click to make sure the safety cap is locked. Remember, even though many medicines and vitamins have safety caps, children may be able to open them.
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Ask houseguests and visitors to keep purses, bags or coats that have medicines in them up and away and out of sight when they are in your home.
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Put the poison control number, 1-800-222-1222, on or near every home telephone and save it on your cell phone.
Learn how to prevent medicine dosing errors
Parents are more likely to make mistakes when giving medicines to infants and toddlers than to older children. For example, half of the mistakes leading to emergency room visits from cough and cold medicines occur when giving medicines to infants and toddlers.
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Read all of the information on the package label and follow the directions. Do not give a child medicine more often or in greater amounts than is stated on the package.
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Use only the measuring device (dropper, dosing cup or dosing spoon) that is included with the product. Do not use a kitchen teaspoon or tablespoon for giving medicines to children. If a measuring device is not included with the product, purchase one at a pharmacy or ask for one from your pharmacist.
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Check the "active ingredients" in prescription and over-the-counter medicines. Make sure that you do not give your child two medicines that have the same "active ingredient." If you have questions ask your doctor or pharmacist.
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If you do not understand the instructions on the label, or how to use the dosing device, do not use the medicine. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor if you have questions or are confused.
The Overdose Epidemic
Poisoning – particularly from overdoses of over-the-counter, prescription, and illicit drugs – has surpassed falls to become the nation’s first-leading cause of unintentional death, surpassing motor-vehicle collisions. With an 80 percent increase from 2001 to 2006, poisoning is the fastest-rising cause of accidental death in the United States.
Unintentional Poisoning from Overdoses
While most people think of poisoning as a childhood issue, adults are overwhelmingly to blame for the steep recent increase in unintentional poisoning deaths.
Between 1993 and 2003, there was a 107 percent increase in the unintentional poisoning death rate from overdoses among Americans ages 20 to 64. In Washington state and the District of Columbia, overdoses have surpassed motor vehicle crashes to become the leading cause of unintentional death.
Drug-related poisonings are often due to overdose or misuse of opioid analgesics initially prescribed to treat chronic pain, such as oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone, fentanyl and buprenorphine. While the greatest number of these deaths is occurring among white men ages 45 to 54 – up nearly 6,000 in a decade – poisoning death rates are increasing fastest among white women – up more than 300 percent.
The National Safety Council has issued a report on “Trends in Unintentional Poisoning Deaths and Death Rates” that details the steep increase in these deaths. Click here for the 2008 summary.
Call to Educate
A survey conducted in fall 2007 by the National Safety Council revealed that most Americans (81 percent) still believe that children are at greatest risk for poisoning. Less than four percent said adults, though data shows that less than one percent of fatal poisoning deaths in 2004 affected children (birth to five years) and more than 96 percent involved adults (19 years and older).
The need for public education is clear. When asked to rank potential causes of poisoning in the Council’s fall 2007 survey, 53 percent of people surveyed said household chemicals were most commonly associated with fatal poisoning while just 34 percent named drugs and medicine.
Poisoning and Children
While children rarely die today from unintentional poisoning, non-fatal poisonings remain a childhood concern. About 50,000 children under the age of four are injured by unintentional poisonings every year.
This is testament to the success of national awareness efforts, such as poison prevention campaigns and child-resistant packaging.
Contact our Collaborators:
Nebraska Regional Poison Center http://www.nebraskapoison.com/
LiveWise Collation http://www.livewisecoalition.org/
Safe Kids Worldwide http://www.safekids.org/safetytips/field_age/big-kids-5%E2%80%939-years/field_risks/poison?gclid=CPHfi_3_jroCFVNo7AodMTcAkA
Source: National Safety Council http://www.nsc.org/resources/issues/poison.aspx