By Thomas E. Kiurski
Firefighters involved in emer-gency medical services are often the first on the scene of accidental poisonings. The call may come in that a child has eaten the leaves of a plant, an infant has swallowed some pills from off the counter, or a child has been found unconscious on a garage floor next to overturned bottles. Each year, more than one million poisonings occur in children under the age of six. You can do something to reduce the number of poisonings that occur in your community.
The third week of March has been established as Poison Prevention Week. That is certainly a good time to focus on the prevention of accidental poisonings. Since the fire department is usually the first agency contacted when a poisoning occurs, however, we must include poison prevention in our overall fire prevention/education efforts.
Poison Prevention Week is sponsored by the Poison Prevention Week Council, a group of 35 organizations that provides information to educators who teach poison prevention in their communities. The council provides a kit containing reproducible handouts, statistics, brochures, flyers, pamphlets, posters, and other aids to help you deliver an effective program. At Livonia (MI) Fire & Rescue, we use the information from the kit to write articles for the local newspaper each year reminding citizens to be vigilant in searching for and eliminating the causes of accidental poisonings in their homes.
The National Safe Kids Campaign has a Poisoning Fact Sheet that contains good information to add to your program.
We have taken information from both of these sources and created a brochure entitled “Livonia Fire & Rescue’s Poison Prevention Checklist.” The brochure contains a checklist covering storage and disposal of poisons in every room in the house, five keys to a “home safe home,” statistics, and emergency numbers. We keep the brochures in our fire stations all year long and mail them out to people who request them after reading our annual articles in the local newspaper.
Since the overwhelming majority of poisonings occur in small children, an understanding of the contributing factors will help us better combat the problem. To a child, the pills left out on the kitchen table as a reminder to take them may look like candy; to a child, the smell of cleaning supplies may be attractive; and to a child, gasoline stored in the garage makes a pretty rainbow when it becomes wet. Our program must target not only children but also adults who have as well as watch children.
Make presentations to PTA groups, daycare workers, and homeowner associations. Include statistics in your talk to get your audience’s attention. Hold up a clear container of honey and one of motor oil, and have the audience guess which one is the poison. Or fill the two containers-one with a colored beverage and one with a similarly colored poison such as windshield washer fluid, antifreeze, or a household cleaner.
Play the “Poison IQ Game” with the audience. Ask a mix of easy and difficult questions about poisonings. We sent the questions to a local radio station, which used them on the air to challenge listeners to find out more information about poisons.
Livonia firefighters attached to a colorful display board poisonous products such as medicines alongside similar looking products that kids recognize and love, such as candy. The resemblance that some medicine bears to candy is remarkable. The display stands on a tripod that is four feet tall. A smaller version of the display is available in a hinged case for easy transport to speaking engagements.
We made another display in which the words “medicine” and “candy” are spelled out using medicine and candy, again showing the resemblance of candy to poisons. We have used both displays in public service announcements we made with local cable companies.
The need to talk about poison prevention is very real. Don’t wait until Poison Prevention Week. You will share important information with the citizens in your community about a problem that might not get a lot of attention otherwise. n
Resources
- Kits: Poison Prevention Week Council, P.O. Box 1543, Washington, D.C., 20013.
- Poisoning Fact Sheet: National Safe Kids Campaign, 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 100, Washington, D.C., 20004-1707.
Attention-Getting Statistics
- More than 90 percent of all poison exposures occur in the home.
- Each year, 45 children ages four and under die from unintentional exposures to medicines and household products.
- Each year, 30 children ages 14 and under are fatally poisoned by carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless gas.
- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that the lives of about 800 children have been saved since the introduction of child-resistant packaging.
- Every dollar spent on poison control centers saves this country almost $7 in medical costs, since the average cost of treatment for a poisoning exposure is $8,700.
Sample “Poison IQ” Questions
Q: In 1953, the first Poison Control Center opened in the United States. In what city?
A: Chicago, Illinois.
Q: Name two leading characters from Shakespeare’s works who met their untimely deaths by poison.
A: Hamlet and Romeo.
Q: The use of what sedative hypnotic drug by pregnant women in the early 1960s resulted in about 5,000 cases of congenital anomalies in their newborns?
A: Thalidomide.
Q: In the 1993 movie “Sleepless in Seattle,” Tom Hank’s character gives what good advice to the babysitter before he goes out?
A: Where the syrup of ipecac is located, if needed.
Q: In 1930, a lithium-containing drink called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon Lime Soda was introduced and touted to relieve depression following a hangover. Still on the market today, but no longer containing lithium, what is this popular beverage?
A: 7-Up.
Q: According to Norse mythology, the god Baldur was killed by a poison dart made from what toxic plant?
A: Mistletoe.
Q: In the children’s tale “The Story of Babar,” Babar’s father and king of the elephants died after eating what poisonous substance?
A: Poisonous mushrooms.
Q: Which remarkable woman in history killed herself by deliberately allowing an asp to bite her?
A: Cleopatra.
Q: In the 1991 movie “My Girl,” Macaulay Culkin dies from an encounter with what venomous critter?
A: A bee.
Q: Which is the only continent inhabited by more poisonous than nonpoisonous snakes?
A: Australia.
Thomas E. Kiurski is a firefighter, a paramedic, and the director of fire safety education for Livonia (MI) Fire & Rescue. His book Creating a Fire-Safe Community: A Guide for Fire Safety Educators (Fire Engineering, 1999) is a guide for bringing the safety message to all segments of the community efficiently and economically.
