American Association
of Poison Control Centers
Poison can be defined as a substance that has the ability to cause illness or death when introduced our absorbed in some manner. The American Association of Poison Control Centers supports the nation’s 55 poison centers in their efforts
to prevent and treat poison exposures. To reach the AAPCC, call 1-800-222-1222.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers work 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week to help reduce hospital visits and confidently provide medical advice.
Age and gender play a large role in the distribution of poison occurrences.
Children younger than three years of age were involved in 35.6% of exposure sand children younger than 6 years accounted for approximately half of all human exposures (47.7%). This leads us to believe that children are at a much higher
risk of being exposed to poison. In terms of gender distribution, a male predominance was found among cases involving children younger than 13 years,but this gender distribution was reversed in teenagers and adults with females comprising the majority of reported exposures. The reasons for exposure vary
greatly but the most human exposures were unintentional, totaling 79.4%. These
categories range from general, therapeutic error, misuse, environmental,
bite/sting, occupational, food poising, and unknown. The route of exposure
identifies the physical manner in which the poison was consumed. Ingestion was the route of exposure in 83.7% of cases followed by dermal (7.0%),inhalation/nasal (6.1%), and ocular routes (4.3%).
They work closely with
America’s 55 poison centers to track down the source of poison, which includes household products, food and
beverages, chemicals in the workplace and home, environmental toxins, drugs and
medicine, and animal and insect bites and stings. Millions
of calls are made annually regarding poison exposure or medical information.
James B. Mowry PharmD, Daniel A. Spyker PhD, MD, Daniel E. Brooks
MD, Naya McMillan DrPH, MS & Jay L. Schauben PharmD (2015) 2014 Annual Report of the
American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 32nd
Annual Report, Clinical Toxicology, 53:10, 962-1147, DOI: 10.3109/15563650.2015.1102927
