Citation

Kotwica M, Jarosz A, Kolaciński Z, Rogaczewska A. Int. J. Occup. Med. Environ. Health 1997; 10(2): 177-186.

Affiliation

Department of Scientific Information, National Poison Information Centre, The Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz and the Polish Association of Occupational Medicine, Publisher Walter de Gruyter)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9278130

Abstract

Information protocols on the causes of acute poisoning exposures with chemicals in children up to 14 years old collected during 1990-95 at the National Poison Information Centre have been analyzed. Approximately 96% of intoxication were accidental, 44% of patients were poisoned with drugs, 22% with household products and 14% with pesticides. Almost 25% of drug poisonings were due to sedative and to psychotropic drugs, and 17% to drug mixtures. The frequency of mushrooms and plants poisonings were low - 6%. In Poland there are practically no acute poisoning departments which treat children (actually, there is only one Poison Unit in Kraków at Polish-American Children's Hospital), and thus these patients are treated in paediatric wards and paediatric hospitals, so complete data on the poisonings in children from over the whole territory of Poland are not available. However, we believe that the frequency of causes of children's intoxication in our country is properly reflected in our material. This allows us to draw conclusions of the prevention of poisoning in this age group.

Language: en