M.
Bruce Edmonson
NIOSH Education and Information Division
AUTHOR
ABSTRACT
Liquid
lye drain cleaners responsible for a childhood epidemic of
household ingestions in the early 1970s are now marketed in
drastically reduced alkali concentrations and packaged in
child-resistant containers. However, farm and industrial caustic
agents continue to be sold without poison prevention safeguards,
as exemplified by dairy pipeline cleaners (liquid NaOH/KOH
concentrations 8% to 25%) used routinely on dairy farms. In
this study, the ingestion epidemiology of farm/industrial
v household caustic alkali products was compared in a population
that included farm children. Forty-three children were admitted
from 1973 to 1983 to four rural hospitals for nonintentional
caustic alkali ingestion. Farm products constituted 23% of
all products and 43% of all drain/pipe cleaners ingested.
Dairy pipeline cleaners were the single most common causative
substance, injuring ten toddlers (mean age 1.6 years), perforating
the esophagus in two. Liquid dairy pipeline cleaners were
usually ingested in tiny amounts from nonchild-resistant containers
or drinking glasses at evening milking time. In contrast,
household drain cleaners were associated with fewer ingestions,
with all serious complications related to highly concentrated
products not available on the consumer market after 1975.
Poison prevention strategies successfully applied in the 1970s
to household drain cleaners should be redirected and modified
for farm-related caustic alkali agents. Preventive measures
are suggested by the highly specific pattern of injury and
the small, defined population at risk.
JOURNAL AND
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE ID#
JOURNAL:
Pediatrics. 1987; 79(3): 413-416.
Note:
Pediatrics.
NLOM ID#:
87146101
.
Disclaimer
and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not
represent NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears
by permission of the author and/or copyright holder. More
NASD Review: 04/2002
This
document was extracted from the CDC-NIOSH Epidemiology of
Farm Related Injuries: Bibliography With Abstracts, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service,
Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.
We
are unable to supply copies of the full report cited
in this entry. Readers are advised to use the following
sources:
- Author
or publisher: articles are frequently available
from the author or publisher.
- Medical
or other research libraries: these facilities
often have the material on hand or know where
it can be obtained. If available, each journal
entry includes the appropriate National Library
of Medicine unique identification number to aid
in interlibrary loan requests.
- Government:
some U.S. Government-sponsored research reports,
including ones out-of print, are available from
the National Technical Information Service, U.S.
Department of Commerce.
|
|