Poison

The American Association of Poison Control Centers or AAPCC is health organization and resource that people can turn to for public education in poisons and attempting to decrease sickness and mortality rates that are due to poisonings. These center’s mission is to prevent poisonings, conduct scientific research, treat infected people that are exposed to poisonings. These poisonings can come from plants, animals, medications, household cleaners and other products. There are 55 Poison Control Centers in the United States that offer free and confidential medical help all hours of the day, but , but their main address is 3201 New Mexico Avenue, Suite 330, Washington D.C. 20016. You can contact them at 1-800-222-1222. This 24/7 advice line helps in-home treatment of poisonings to keep you from spending time at the hospital.

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 People can also become certified through the American Association of Poison Control Centers as specialists in poison information. These specialists are always available to the public and private businesses for help. Along with the specialists, there are doctors and physicians that also work for the  Each December, AAPCC publishes their National Poison Data System, which is the only poison information database in the United States. Categories when you call the 1-800 number range from human and animal poison to general information calls. The database can be downloaded for free from the AAPCC website under the National Poison Data System page. The database generates a Current Annual Report that is updated every eight minutes by each of the 55 poison centers with recent poison call-ins. This report gives a large amount of information on the poisoned, including their age and gender distributions, exposure reasons/routes, exposures in pregnancy and other topics.

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According to the Poison Center Data Snapshot, in 2014, almost half of poison exposures taken care of by a poison control center involved children under the age of six! Following young children, adults ages 20-59 were exposed to the second most amount of toxins. Adults 60 and up were exposed to the least amount of poisons, only taking up 6% of the data taken.  Also in 2014, a poison center was called “about every 11 seconds” the snapshot claims. 57% of poison calls revolved around prescribed medications. Most of the poisons that occurred last year took place in a household and were also treated in a household; therefore, saving those households medical expenses.