Persons using assistive technology might not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, please send e-mail to: [email protected]. Type 508 Accommodation and the title of the report in the subject line of e-mail.
Notice to Readers: National Poison Prevention Week, March 17--23, 2002
The theme of this year's National Poison Prevention Week (March 17--23, 2002) is "Children Act Fast...So Do
Poisons!" Of the 2.2 million poisonings reported to U.S. poison centers in 2000, 52.7% involved children aged <6 years
(1). The most common substances to which young children were exposed included cosmetics and personal care products,
cleaning substances, analgesics, foreign bodies, and plants. Of the 920 poisoning-related fatalities reported in the same year,
2.2% involved children aged <6 years. Of poisoning emergencies reported, 74.7% were managed safely in the home.
In January 2002, U.S. poison centers and the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) introduced a
toll-free poison center number (1-[800]-222-1222) through which callers from the 50 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands can reach local poison centers. Additional information on National Poison
Prevention Week, other poison prevention programs, and poison center services is available from AAPCC at
http://www.aapcc.org or http://www.1-800-222-1222.info
and from the Poison Prevention Week Council at http://www.poisonprevention.org
.
Reference
Litovitz TL, Klein-Schwartz W, White S, et al. 2000 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic
Exposure Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med 2001;19:337--95.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from ASCII text
into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version.
Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the electronic PDF version and/or
the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables.
An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800.
Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to
[email protected].
