With Americans getting ready to start their spring cleaning or setting up their gardens, it’s important to remember that some products can carry a serious risk of poisoning.
It’s currently Poison Prevention Week in the U.S., and with almost 2 million people being poisoned every year, Dr. David Rzeszutko, the Vice President of medical and clinical operations at Priority Health, joined WWJ News radio to discuss the trend.
Rzeszutko shared that of the 2 million poisonings that happen every year, the majority of them are happening at home, with kids often being involved.
“Poison Prevention Week really is reminding adults and families of safe storage of things in and around the household, medications,” Rzeszutko said. “Many of those accidental poisonings are occurring in young ones, particularly around the time when children are getting a little bit more mobile. The toddler age, where everything that they get their hands on is unfortunately going in their mouth.”
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, 90% of all poison exposures happen in the home, and children under 6 accounted for nearly half of all exposures to poisons in the U.S. as of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’s last report.
As for what’s the leading cause of poisoning, Johns Hopkins shared that for children ages 5 and under, 57% of poison exposures are by non-medicine products. Top contributors include cleaning substances, cosmetics, plants, pesticides, and art supplies.
Rzeszutko says that often, children confuse cleaning products with candy.
“A lot of the cleaning products that we’ve got, under sinks, in the kitchen area, perhaps in a laundry room,” Rzeszutko said. “So bleaches, dishwashing liquid, drain cleaners, laundry detergent, particularly the tablets or the single-use packets, oftentimes, are mistaken for candy or something sweet. So those are some of the most frequent things.”
Other products Rzeszutko flagged as being dangerous include personal hygiene products, mouthwash, nail polish remover, cosmetics, and other items not always kept locked away, like medications.
So what should you do if someone you know is poisoned?
“If you do feel like someone has suffered an accidental poisoning, it is really important to contact either a local poison control center… or be contacting your trusted provider,” he said, also noting that for emergencies, 911 should always be “your first call.”
“Make no mistake, if there is an urgent or emergent situation, say, for example, someone is not breathing or having difficulty breathing, or you notice that their consciousness is lagging, those are emergency situations,” Rzeszutko said. “We’d recommend calling 911 or contacting local emergency services immediately.”