A controlled study of the impact of a poison prevention education program on parental awareness and behaviors

An estimated one to two million accidental childhood poisonings occur yearly in the United States, primarily in children under five. The National Clearinghouse for Poison Control Centers (NCPCC) reported over 150,000 poisonings in 1978., 71 percent of which occurred in this age group. In the same year, the Intermountain Regional Poison control Center (IRPCC) confirmed that 75 percent of their total reported accidental poisonings occurred in children under age five. Overall, in most studies or reports where statistics have been gathered, 70 to 95 percent of the reported poisonings have occurred in children under five years of age and of this group, the eighteen to three-year old child accounts for over half. The high incidence of accidental poisonings seen and reported in these children under five is the result of the interaction of several factors, namely: the nature of children, presence of a hazardous environment, and easy accessibility to toxic substances. A child tends to react to his environment impulsively, seeking what he wants when he wants it. A six-month old child will put anything in his mouth, and a one-to-two-year old child will taste almost any product stored within his reach at low levels. By the time the child is two and a half to three years of age, agility and mobility become factors, often giving him access to many cabinets of storage areas in the home. Even to age five, most children are naive to the consequences of a poisoning. As a result, most of these children under five must be protected from the toxic products within their environment and their parents educated about the dangers and consequences of accidental poisonings.