April 21, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Poison Centers Should Be Funded
YOUR CHILD'S HEALTH: Q: I understand there is a (federal) move to cut funding for our poison center. Given our governments' budget problems and a falling number of kids poisoning themselves, I can see why.
A: You are correct that the number of poisoning deaths in the United States has fallen in the last 50 years, a fine accomplishment, but there were still more than 20,000 deaths in 2004. But one might as well say that one can stop wearing seat belts because the highway death toll has fallen, or stop getting our babies immunized against tetanus— after all, who has seen a case of lockjaw?
I remember a time before poison centers, though barely. The New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center has been around since the early 1970s. But during my internship in 1969-1970, poison centers were not common, and I remember paging through textbooks to try to find out what to do when a child took a swig from a bottle of furniture polish or downed a handful of his grandma's pills. Each time I would wonder, "Is this the whole story? Is this information up to date?"
For the 33 years I've been in Albuquerque, I haven't had to wonder. Instead I dial (800) 222-1222 and ask the question. I can be sure that I will get careful consideration and up-to-date information from the most current print and online sources, leading me through the process of deciding whether treatment is needed and guiding me as to expected problems and needed steps.
I'll tell you about a couple of the many calls my wife and I have made to our poison center as worried parents or as a physician. On one occasion, many years ago, one of our neighbors, playing with our daughters, ate the contents of a tiny packet of "Super Slurper" from our daughters' chemistry set. I hadn't heard of "Super Slurper," which was new at the time, but the idea of what a current Web site describes as a "gold medal winner" in the "Polymer Olympics: It can soak up and hold more than 3,000 times its weight in water!" in the body of our little neighbor 3-year-old was alarming. She might be made into a prune from the inside out. We called the poison center and asked what to do. Because Super Slurper was new, the poison center called the manufacturer and gave us a plan. That toddler has toddlers of her own now.
On another occasion, our daughters were walking with their grandmother in the hills near San Francisco. The little girls saw some pretty flowers growing wild on the hillside, with some interesting looking peapodlike appendages hanging from the plant. Our children liked peas, so they stripped a few of the seeds out of the pods and ate them. When they got back to grandma's house where we were waiting, they told us of their walk. We called the poison center. Sweet pea seeds are poisonous, causing paralysis, which, according to a current Web site, is "rarely fatal." We had to look up the number for the Northern California Poison Center at the time; you don't have to do that any more, since the number anywhere in the U.S. is the same, (800) 222-1222. In California, we'd be connected to the local number; in New Mexico you get the careful, friendly people who have been helping me for more than 30 years.
Employees at the poison center, a University of New Mexico service, work hard to avoid having to use their expertise. They distribute literature and give talks in the community on prevention of poisoning, safe storage of chemicals and medicines. But sometimes we fail at prevention. On one of many similar occasions among my patients, a toddler found a pill that her grandparent had dropped, and popped it into her mouth. The horrified parent who observed this called in a panic. The pill, we found out, was a medication used by grandma for her diabetes to reduce her blood sugar. We and the poison center were very concerned that it would do just that in the 2-year-old, possibly causing brain damage or death. With their guidance, we hooked the child up to an infusion of glucose until the medicine would be out of the system.
My final anecdote: Years ago, our family owned a donkey, an irascible sort who lived in a corral in our back yard. Milton Burro one day drank nearly a gallon of paint with which my wife had been painting the shed. We called the poison center, and were advised, apparently without laughter at the other end of the phone, to give Milton a quart or two of mineral oil to hurry the paint on through his system. I am not sure how my wife did this, but Milton lived to kick another day. The poison center's Web site, http://hsc.unm.edu/pharmacy/ poison, notes that it serves in pet poisonings as well.
We could return to the days when tetanus killed thousands each year, when unrestrained children flew out of the windows of crashed cars to their death, or when doctors tried to find a treatment for a child who had taken a pill or a dangerous liquid. I'd rather support our extremely helpful, 24/7, 365-day New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center.
Lance Chilton, M.D., is a pediatrician at the Young Children's Health Center in Albuquerque, associated with the University of New Mexico. He is happy to hear from those with questions at 272-9242 or lancekathy@yahoo.com.
Need Help?
Contact The New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center by calling (800) 222-1222 or online at http://hsc. unm.edu/ pharmacy/ poison.