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National Poison Prevention Week, March 21--27, 2004
March 21--27 is National Poison Prevention Week. This week is organized each year by the
NationalPoison Prevention Week Council, a coalition of national organizations working to prevent poisonings. This year's activities will focus on reducing unintentional poisonings among children by emphasizing the responsibility of parents, grandparents, and other
caregivers for preventing poisonings in the home.
In 2002, U.S. poison-control centers reported approximately 2.3 million poisonings
(1). Approximately90% of these occurred in the home and involved common household items (e.g., cleaning products, detergents, medicines, vitamins, cosmetics, and plants) (2).
As part of promotion efforts for National Poison Prevention Week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
has issued a poison lookout checklist, which highlights areas of the home that are common sites of unintentional poisonings
and how to correct situations that might lead to poisonings. The checklist is available at
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/383.html.
Watson WA, Litovitz TL, Rodgers GC, et al. 2002 Annual
report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med 2003;21:353--421.
Litovitz TL, Klein-Schwartz W, White S, et al. 2000 Annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med 2001;19:337--96.
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