Spare yourself the trauma with Brenna Benjamin.

Brenna Benjamin handles Trauma Program Injury Prevention and Outreach for Emergency Services at NorthBay Healthcare. Her blog focuses on preventive safety measures and true trauma encounters.

You can e-mail her at: BBenjamin@NorthBay.org

Brenna started writing for this blog September of 2017.

It's National Poison Prevention Week

March 16, 2015
 

This is National Poison Prevention Week. Did you know drug-related poisonings cause nearly 700,000 visits to hospital emergency rooms each year? Poisonings cause more than 35,000 deaths each year. 

Young people are the most likely to be poisoned, with children under age 6 accounting for half of all poison exposures. Nine out of 10 poisoning deaths occur among people over the age of 20.

 The top causes of poisoning are painkillers, cosmetics or personal products, household cleaning products, sedatives, hypnotics and antipsychotic medicine, foreign bodies, toys and other objects. Poisonings are more common and deadly than you may realize, but they are both preventable and treatable. 

Be sure to keep any prescription medications and over-the-counter medications out of reach of little ones and don't rely on child-resistant safety packaging to keep children safe. Mistakes can happen, especially in a household with many medications. Have good lighting to ensure you are reading labels correctly and providing the appropriate dosage to children.

If you suspect a poisoning has occurred, or if you just have a question:* Call the Poison Help Line 1-800-222-1222 * Call 911 if someone is unconscious or has trouble breathing. 

Comments

 
 

Post A Comment

 

Subscribe to Spare Yourself the Trauma

Get the latest Spare Yourself the Trauma post in your inbox