Summer Tips

As the weather warms and we spend more time outside, families face new risks. Here are some tips to avoid poisonings that occur most often in the summer:

• Be sure that everyone in your family can identify poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Remember, "leaves of three, let it be." If someone touches one of these plants, rinse right away with plenty of running water for at least five minutes.
• Poisonous mushrooms often grow in yards and parks. Only experts can tell poisonous mushrooms from safe mushrooms.
• Use a thermometer when cooking and reheating foods. That will help you to know when they are safe to eat.
  
  Call Poison Help (1-800-222-1222) to reach the poison center and local poison expert serving your area. View a complete list of summer poison prevention tips.
  
  
  

Poison Help launches digital advertising campaign

The newly redesigned Poison Help campaign, which launched in March, has enjoyed great success with its online advertising campaign. Four brand new digital advertisements were designed for Poison Help, and have been airing since March on sites like WebMD, USAToday.com, AOL, and Yahoo!.

The advertising campaign has been extremely successful. After the first full month of the advertising campaign, nearly three million people have been exposed to the ads, and hundreds of thousands watched the spots in their entirety. During Poison Prevention Week and through the first full month of the advertising campaign, the new Poison Help Web site received thousands of hits per week. Many of the viewers who were exposed to the ads made their way to the Web site to seek more information.

The Poison Help advertising campaign will continue through 2008. View all four digital ads.
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Toll-free number blunder

You may have noticed a typo in the Spring edition of the HRSA Poison Control Program newsletter. The national Poison Help number to reach poison control centers was erroneously recorded as 1-800-222-1212 in one location. This number is often mistakenly listed as the national number to access poison control centers. Our error does afford us the opportunity to encourage those who come across the number listed incorrectly to try to have the listing changed locally. The actual national Poison Help number is 1-800-222-1222.

Thank you to those that brought this blunder to our attention. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We have edited the Spring edition and the final version is now located at PoisonHelp.hrsa.gov.

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EPA "Play it Safe" Campaign

The latest data collected from the American Association of Poison Control Centers reports an estimated 70,000 calls annually involving children's exposure to common household pesticides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is committed to raising public awareness about ways to prevent pesticide poisonings, and promote safe use and storage of household pesticide products. In support of these efforts, the EPA has developed a suite of educational materials specifically designed for parents and caregivers. The "Play It Safe" campaign provides useful, family-friendly information about what parents can do to minimize the risks associated with exposure to household pesticides. The campaign materials include:

• Play It Safe: Reduce Your Child's Chances of Pesticide Poisoning
(EPA-735-K-07-003) available in English and Spanish
• Poison-proof Your Home: One Room at a Time
(EPA-735-F-07-010) available in English and Spanish

To order copies, visit The National Service Center for Environmental Publications Web Site , or call at 1-800-490-9198.

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Poison control centers in the literature

The following two articles on poison control centers have been published recently in the professional literature

Zaloshnja, E., Miller, T., Jones, P.R., Litovitz, T., Coben, J., Steiner, C., & Sheppard, M. (2008).

The impact of poison control centers on poisoning-related visits to EDs, U.S. 2003.

The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 26 (3), 310-315.

For 14 US States, 2003 State hospital data, emergency department (ED) data, and poison control center (PCC) call data were examined to determine the relationship between nonfatal non-admitted ED rates for poisoning and PCC call volume. This county-level analysis used a log-normal regression model. For every 15.5 human exposure calls to PCCs, one non-admitted ED visit is prevented. This study also showed a PCC benefit-cost ratio of 1.4, inferring that PCC spending is associated, although perhaps not causally, with a $205 net cost savings in medical spending.

Bunn TL, Slvova S, Spiller HA, Colvin J, Bathke A, Nicholson VJ.

The Effect of Poison Control Center Consultation on Accidental Poisoning Inpatient Hospitalizations with Pre-Existing Medical Conditions.

J Toxicol Environ Health (part A) 2008;71:283-288

For the period, 2000-2004, probabilistic data linkage was used to link 6,249 hospitalized cases of unintentional poisoning with 3,068 reported poison control center (PCC) records for hospital-admitted accidental poisoning in Kentucky. Linkage variables, used to show that the hospital consulted with the PCC about the case, consisted of age, gender, hospital, and date of admission/poisoning. Controlling for age and sex, poisoning cases that had a PCC consult and no preexisting medical condition had on average a shorter length of stay in the hospital and lower average total charges, while poisoning cases with no PCC consult and preexisting medical conditions had on average a longer hospital length of stay and higher average total charges. This study shows that PCC consultation has a positive effect on total charges and length of stay regardless of preexisting medical conditions.
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the.Medic series focuses on teen prescription drug abuse

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reported this past January that more teens abuse prescription drugs than any illicit drug other than marijuana. According to the report, more than 2.1 million teenagers abused prescription drugs in 2006.

MacNeil/Lehrer Productions is developing the.News, an in-school news broadcast for high school and middle school students and teachers that will emphasize 21st Century learning objectives. the.News will include a regular health awareness feature called the.Medic.

As part of the development process they have collaborated with the National Association of School Nurses to create a prototype. The series includes five videos, each roughly four minutes long. Four reports are for students, the fifth for parents. The videos are accompanied by lesson plans with curriculua appropriate for middle and high school students in the subject areas of science and language arts. The curriculum and video features can be found on the Website www.macneil-lehrer.com/thenews. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/themedic/

For further information and questions about this material contact Lisa Denny at ldenny@newshour.org.
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Poison session presented at annual STIPDA/CDC meeting

The 2008 Joint Annual Meeting of State and Territorial Injury Program Directors Association and Centers for Disease Core State Injury Grantees was held April 20-23 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The meeting included a dedicated session on poisoning issues. This session featured ideas for partnering with poison control centers for prevention, a look at the results of surveillance activities in Texas, and a discussion around the proper disposal of medicine. The session closed with a discussion of prevention and surveillance activities being conducted by an interdisciplinary, multi-agency Poison Workgroup. Speakers were:

• Barbara Singer, HRSA Poison Control Program, "Public Health - Something to Talk About With Poison Control Centers"
• Marcia Becker, Texas Department of State Health Services, "Intentional Poisoning Exposures Reported to the Texas Poison Control Center"
• Melissa Heinen, Northern New England Poison Center, "Prevent Poisonings - Get Rid of Old Medicines! Just Don't Ask Us How"
• Monique Sheppard, HRSA's Poison Center Technical Assistance Resource Center

Archives of these presentations and others from the STIPDA/CDC Meeting are available at the State and Territorial Injury Program Directors Association Web site

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Technical Assistance Spotlight

HRSA's Poison Center Technical Assistance Resource Center (PC TARC) works with PCCs in a variety of areas, including strategic planning, program evaluation, meeting facilitation, marketing programs, organizational development and health education. Recently, PC TARC worked with the Northern New England Poison Center (NNEPC) as they created a brochure on "Medication: What You Need to Know" with the New Hampshire State Committee on Aging. The NNEPC developed the content for the brochure in conjunction with its partners and asked PC TARC to assist with design, layout, graphics, format, and providing camera-ready files for the printer.

The final brochure was released in March 2008 and can be seen on the NNEPC Web site at www.nnepc.org. Feel free to visit the Web site and to contact the PC TARC or NNEPC staffs with questions or comments on the brochure. Thank you to Melissa Heinen and Karen Simone for their permission to share this brief description with readers of this newsletter.

To reach PC TARC staff, please e-mail pctarc@pire.org or call 301-755-2800, ext. 1.
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April designated as National 9-1-1 Education Month

Congress designated April 2008 as National 9-1-1 Education Month, recognizing the importance of 9-1-1 education. Eight national organizations, called the Coalition for 9-1-1 Education, have joined together to advance 9-1-1 education: E9-1-1 Institute; National Emergency Number Association (NENA); 9-1-1 For Kids; National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators; Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International; CTIA - The Wireless Association; 911 Industry Alliance; and COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance. They are calling upon public safety officials, schools, government officials, and industry leaders to engage in a national effort to educate children, seniors, and the general public about the importance of, and appropriate use of, 9-1-1. For more information visit The E9-1-1 Institute Web Site .

HRSA's Poison Control Program participates in meetings with NENA on the issue of Voice Over Internet Provider (VOIP) and cell phones as they relate to accessing the nation's emergency telephone systems. An effort is underway to enhance the current 9-1-1 system in order to appropriately route incoming calls from VoIP and cell phones. HRSA works to ensure that the national Poison Help line, 1-800-222-1222, is considered an emergency telephone number and that access to poison centers on this number is just as critical as access to 9-1-1.

For more information on HRSA's involvement with NENA and the routing of the Poison Help line (1-800-222-1222), please contact Maxine Jones at 301-443-6192.
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Pediatric drug studies provide improved dosing

Published online February 29, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 121 No. 3 March 2008, pp. 530-539

Legislation passed over the last decade has resulted in a significant increase in the number of pediatric studies conducted to evaluate the safe and effective use of drugs in pediatric patients. The study, "Improving Pediatric Dosing Through Pediatric Initiatives: What We Have Learned," reviewed pediatric drug studies for 108 products submitted to the Food and Drug Administration from July 1998 through October 2005. The authors were interested in the impact increased pediatric drug trials have made on drug labeling and dosing for children. They concluded that these studies have resulted in significant changes in pediatric drug labeling and unique pediatric dosing recommendations. These changes have created more concise drug labeling, allowing physicians to prescribe more beneficial dosages, while reducing the risk of harmful or ineffective results. The authors conclude that a long-term commitment, starting early in drug development, to gaining knowledge regarding pediatric patients is of utmost importance for developing therapies in this unique and vulnerable patient population.
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EX® smoking cessation campaign launches nationwide

A new public health campaign, funded by an alliance of national organizations and State health agencies, launched on March 31st in Washington, D.C. The program, called EX®, aims to change the way smokers think about the difficult process of quitting, and guide them to valuable free resources to build a successful quit attempt.

This new public education effort will encourage smokers to approach quitting smoking as "re-learning life without cigarettes." EX will educate smokers through advertisements on television, radio and online and via out-of-home promotions. The program also offers smokers a new Web site, www.BecomeAnEX.org, which features action-oriented tools and information to help smokers prepare for quitting by developing a personalized plan, as well as a virtual community, where smokers can share stories and best practices about their quit attempts.

The American Legacy Foundation®, the national public health foundation best known for its truth® youth smoking prevention campaign, spearheaded the EX® campaign.
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