Persons using assistive technology might not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, please send e-mail to: mmwrq@cdc.gov. Type 508 Accommodation and the title of the report in the subject line of e-mail.
Notice to Readers: National Poison Prevention Week --- March 20--26, 2005
National Poison Prevention Week, March 20--26, is organized each year in the United States by the National
Poison Prevention Week Council, a coalition of national organizations working to prevent poisonings. This year, the central theme
is "Children Act Fast . . . So Do Poisons!" For 2005, a primary focus is public education about the products most often involved in poisonings.
In 2003, U.S. poison-control centers reported an estimated 2.3 million exposures to poisonous substances
(1). Approximately 90% of these occurred at a residence, and the majority occurred in children aged
<5 years (1). Poisonous agents most often implicated in pediatric exposures include cosmetics, personal-care products, cleaning substances, analgesics, cough and cold preparations, and other products usually found in the home
(1). The highest fatality rates among all
poison exposures occurred in persons aged 30--39 years (19.4%) and 40--49 years (22.4%).
Additional information about National Poison Prevention Week is available at
http://www.cdc.gov/injury. The national
toll-free telephone number for poison-control centers is
1-800-222-1222.
Reference
Watson WA, Litovitz TL, Klein-Schwartz W, et al. 2003 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med 2003;22:335--404.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from ASCII text
into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version.
Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the electronic PDF version and/or
the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables.
An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800.
Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to
mmwrq@cdc.gov.
