National Poison Prevention Week March 20-26
By Danielle Lee
Everyday nearly 2,000 Americans go to emergency rooms to get treatment for accidental poisonings and about 80 of those people will die. Just think that’s billions of dollars a year that go to pay for the medical help that could have been prevented. More than half of all reported poison exposures involve children under the age of six. So where does this poison come from?
Most of it is from misusing or abusing prescription medications. Pain medications, such as methadone, hydrocodone, or oxycodone, were most commonly involved, followed by cocaine and heroin. Even among children, medication poisonings are twice as common to happen as opposed to a household product. Do you think if we used (or abused) drugs (pharmaceutical and other) a lot less that these numbers would drop? What if we lived by the ideology of Hippocrates and instead ‘let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’? Just a thought…
Please take care of your health so that there is no need to risk an accidental poisoning. Even aside from medications, choose skin care or hygienical products that do not have unnecessary chemicals. Your skin absorbs 60% of what is in contact with. This goes for cleaning products as well. You touch them, you smell them and so does your family. The less poisons around the better.
For more information please visit the sites below.
Whitehouse.gov
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/18/presidential-proclamation-national-poison-prevention-week
Centers for disease control and prevention
CDC.gov
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Poisoning/poisoning-factsheet.htm
American academy of pediatrics
http://www.aap.org/family/poisonwk.htm
Safekids.org
http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/safety-spotlight/poison-prevention-week/
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