What is a poison? A poison is any substance that causes harm when it comes in contact with the body of a human or animal.
How often does poisoning occur? According to the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System (TESS), more than 2.4 million toxic exposures were reported to U.S. poison centers in 2003.
Where does poisoning occur? 92.6% of poisoning exposures occurred in the home. Only 2% of the cases were in the workplace, 1.5% in schools, 0.3% in health care facilities, and 0.4% in restaurants or food services. Children less than 3 years old were involved in 39% of the cases and 52% occurred in children younger than 6 years.
How many poison exposures are fatal? Reported toxic exposures in 2003 resulted in 1,106 fatalities.
How do poison exposures occur? Poisoning or toxic exposure can be either intentional or unintentional. Environmental exposure results from contact with contaminated air, water or soil. Occupational exposure occurs in the workplace. Therapeutic error accounts for many poisonings. This could happen by taking the wrong dosage of a medication, by giving a medicine to the wrong person, or by giving the wrong medicine. Drug interactions with foods or other drugs also account for some poisonings. Animal bites and stings are also the cause of some poisonings. So is food poisoning. Suspected suicidal causes, drug abuse and recreational use of drugs adds to the total number of poisonings. Unfortunately poisoning can also be the result of drug tampering or contamination. Too rapid withdrawal of some medications and the general adverse effects of drugs on some individuals are also considered a type of poisoning.
What substances cause the most poisonings? Statistics show that the substances most frequently involved in human poisoning are analgesics (pain-killers), cleaning substances, cosmetics and personal care products. Ingestion of analgesics and sedatives were responsible for the largest number of deaths. This information is from the 2003 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ Toxic Exposure Surveillance System originally published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 22, issue 5, pages 335-404, 2004.
In Arizona there were over 19,000 hospitalizations in 2003 related to drug dependence and drug abuse. During the same period there were nearly 5000 hospitalizations related to poisoning by drugs, medicines or other biological subatances. See: http://www.azdhs.gov/plan/hip/for/substance/index.htm
