Who? The American Association of Poison
When? The American Association of Poison works 24
hours a day and seven days a week
Where? There are 55 poison control centers across
America
Why? To prevent and treat poison exposures foreign and
domestic
The poison help hotline
is 1-800-222-1222 this number offers
free, confidential medical advice 24/7. This helps people perform in home
treatments and avoid the expensive hospital trips. Through my research I have
discovered many things about poison control. Sadly, a lot of Children
younger than 3 years of age were involved in 35.6% of exposures and children
younger than 6 years accounted for approximately half of all human exposures 47.7%.
In children younger than 13 there was a male predominance, but this gender
distribution was reversed in teenagers and adults, with females comprising the
majority of reported exposures.
The reason category for
most human exposures was unintentional 79.4%, the most common scenarios for all
ages was double-dosing 29.2%, wrong medication taken or given 17.2%, other incorrect
dose 14.8%. Intentional exposures accounted for 16.7% of human exposures.
Suicidal intent was suspected in 11.2% of cases, intentional misuse in 2.5% and
intentional abuse in 2.2%. Intentional exposures were more frequently reported
than unintentional exposures in patients aged 13-19 years. The routes of
exposures are; ingestion 81.4%, inhalation/nasal 10.1%, unknown 7.8% and
parenteral 5.2%. Each exposure case may have more than one route. The above
statistics are from the current annual report.
The photo below is a
photo I took in my dorm room with all the poisons we have for cleaning purposes
including rubbing alcohol, Fantastik spray, Windex, Lysol, disinfectant wipes,
and a glade air freshener. The other photo I got off of google is the global symbol
for poison, one knows a product or substance is poisonous if they see this
symbol.
