Risk factors contributing to childhood poisoning

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether the lack of knowledge of toxic agents in households is a risk factor for individual unintentional childhood poisoning. Methods:The case group (n = 25) was composed of caregivers of children under 60 months of age who underwent accidental oral poisoning and were treated at two reference hospitals in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, and recorded in the Toxicology Information Center database. The control group (n = 25) was composed of caregivers of children matched for sex, age, and presence in their homes of the same toxic agents found in the case group, who sought emergency medical care at the same hospitals, but for other reasons. A structured questionnaire was administered to verify the following questions: sociodemographic data, clinical history, behavioral antecedents of caregivers, storage of toxic agents, history of previous poisoning accidents.Results: The children's mean age was 31.8 months (±0.97) and mean height was 93 cm (±11). Families, in both groups, were aware of the toxic action of agents available in their homes; however, caregivers in the control group were twice as likely to have such knowledge compared to the case group. Distraction was 15 times more likely to occur among caregivers of children who underwent poisoning compared to the control group. Storage of toxic agents below 150 cm was approximately 17 times more likely to occur in the group of children who underwent poisoning compared to children in the control group.Conclusions: Lack of knowledge of the toxic action of agents stored in households is not a risk factor for childhood poisoning. The attributable risks described in this study indicated that the elimination of other factors, such as distraction and storage below 150 cm, would lead to the prevention of 13 and 19% of poisonings in childhood, respectively. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2010;86(5):435-440:Risk factors, poisoning, accident prevention, home accidents, preschool child, behavior. ResumoObjetivo: Investigar se a falta de conhecimento dos agentes tóxi-cos nos domicílios é fator de risco de evento tóxico individual acidental na infância. Métodos:Grupo caso (n = 25) é composto por cuidadores de crianças com menos de 60 meses, do município de Porto Alegre (RS), que sofreram evento tóxico acidental oral, atendidas em dois hospitais de referência e com registro no Centro de Informação Toxicológica. O controle (n = 25) é formado por cuidadores de crianças pareadas por sexo, idade e presença nos domicílios de agente tóxico igual ao do caso, que buscaram atendimento médico emergencial nos mesmos hospitais, mas por outras causas. Foi aplicado um questionário próprio, estruturado, verificando-se as questões: sociodemográficas, história clínica, antecedentes comportamentais dos cuidadores, armazenamento dos agentes tóxicos, história pregressa de acidente toxicológico. Resultados:A idade média das crianças foi de 31,8 meses (±0,97) e a estatura média, de 93 cm (±11). As famílias, nos dois grupos, apresentaram conhecimento da ação tóxica de agentes existe...

Childhood poisoning in Warri, Niger Delta, Nigeria: A ten year retrospective study

“…Drugs should be stored out of reach of children. In fact, a sudy in Brasil showed that storage of drugs lower than 150cm increase the chances of drug poisoning in children 28 and we recommend that a law should be introduced to caution parents on ways of storing drugs. The establishment of Poison Control and Information Centres in each of the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria and a National Centre in Abuja should be introduced and given an easy telephone which can be memorised.…”

Poison prevention practices and medically attended poisoning in young children: multicentre case–control study

“…An Australian study of children aged 1–3 years attending an ED following a poisoning and hospital and community controls found accessible storage of medicines in bathrooms increased the odds of poisoning (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.002 to 1.080) 7. Two studies using children aged 0–4 years treated in hospital for poisoning and hospital controls found storing toxic substances in boxes/cabinets (OR 3.80, 95% CI 1.15 to 12.49) or <150 cm from the floor (OR 16.59, 95% CI 2.86 to 96.20)8, unsafe storage of chemicals and medicines (OR 5.6 95% CI 1.9 to 16.7) and storing kerosene and petrol in soft drink bottles (OR 3.8, 95% CI 2.0 to 7.3) increased the odds of poisoning 9. In contrast, two small studies failed to find significant associations between safely packaged household products,10 presence of toxic substances, storage practices, frequencies of use, packaging or disposal and poisonings 11.…”

Analysis of a novel field dilution method for testing samples that exceed the analytic range of point-of-care blood lead analyzers

“…There are also reports of lead-related fatalities from Senegal (Haefliger et al 2009), where the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed at least 18 children died from lead poisoning. Additionally, there are many reports of extremely elevated blood lead levels from other countries (Nduka et al 2008;Orisakwe and Nduka 2009;Shi et al 2009;Brown et al 2010;Niu 2010;Norman et al 2010;Ramos et al 2010;Rowley 2010). In most of these reports, the average BLLs reported were > 65 μg/dL, levels considered to be life-threatening to children (CDC 2002).…”