A poison is any substance that is harmful if too much is eaten, inhaled, injected, or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning remains the top cause of injury death in the U.S., and while the main cause of unintentional poisoning death is opioid overdose, almost any substance can be poisonous if used the wrong way, in the wrong amount, or by the wrong person. Common substances about which people call Poison Control include cosmetics, vitamins, hand sanitizers, pesticides, opioids, electronic-cigarettes, prescription drugs and topical medications. In 2018, there were 631 deaths and 168,410 nonfatal emergency department visits among U.S. children ages birth to 18 due to poisoning. In that same year the 55 U.S. poison control centers provided telephone guidance for nearly 2.1 million human poison exposures; children younger than 6 years were responsible for nearly half of those cases. One injury-related outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a sharp increase in poisoning exposures among children to household cleaners and hand sanitizers. This may be a result of the simultaneous increase in the presence in homes of both children and these substances.
On Thursday, October 29, 2020, 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET, the Children’s Safety Network is offering a free webinar, Poison Prevention: New Challenges and a Novel Tool.
In this webinar, Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor of Georgetown University Hospital will share the most current data on poisonings among U.S. children, including COVID-19-related trends, describe risk and protective factors and discuss challenges to preventing poisonings. Krista Osterthaler of the National Capital Poison Center, will demonstrate the recently-developed webPOISONCONTROL, a free online tool and app that provides instant triage recommendations and follow up for acute, unintentional exposures, bringing the expertise of poison control to people where they want it – online. Bonnie Kozial, of the American Academy of Pediatrics and an active member of the CSN-A, will moderate the webinar.
The webinar will be recorded and an archive will be sent out to all participants after the evend. CSN is not able to offer CEU’s for webinars.