American Association of Poison Control Centers

The American Association ofPoison Control Centers exists in order to prevent and treat poison disorders.  They association supports 55 poison treatment centers in the United States. The AAPCC says its goal is to actively advance the health care role and public health mission of its members through information, advocacy, education, and research.  The AAPCC puts an annual report out every year, documenting the instances of poisoning in the United States.  This part of the report is called the “NPDS” or National Poison Data System.  You can call the poison control number any time of day, 7 days a week.  The number will automatically direct you to the closest poison control center.  Regional Poison Control Centers must be staffed by a medical doctor and a qualified poison information specialist.  In 2014 alone, there was 2,165,142 human exposure calls.  Which comes out to about 6.7 people per every thousand in the general American population.

  (image: https://aapcc.s3.amazonaws.com/pdfs/annual_reports/2014_AAPCC_NPDS_Annual_Report.pdf )However, the AAPCC does not just service human poison exposures. They also service a variety of animal exposures, although in relatively small amounts compared to the amount of humans they service. Dog exposures being the highest-ranking animal exposure.  But not every call received by the AAPCC is an exposure.  Many of them are simply questions.   These questions may concern prevention, safety, or education.  Poison information is the most common call.   This year three-year-old children were the most likely to be poisoned in the United States, followed by 2 and 1 year olds. 

(image: http://www.poison.org/poison-statistics-national)Before the age of 20, males are more likely to be poisoned than females.  But after the age of 20, the roles switch and women become more likely to be exposed to poison.  Making the population most likely to be poisoned, children under six, in particular male children.  The most common substances for poison exposure in the U.S. are cosmetics and self care products.  This is than followed by cleaning substances, and analgesics.  The most common serious poisoning is analgesics, followed by fumes/gases/vapors.   In 2014, 85 percent of the exposures reported were non-toxic, minimally toxic, or at most had a minimal effect.  8 percent of these reported exposures were serious or even fatal.  Intentional poisoning are generally much more dangerous than unintentional.  There were 32 times more serious poisonings/deaths compared to unintentional poisonings.  As you can tell, the poison control center is very busy and services a massive amount of people.  In 2014, a poison exposure was reported once every 15 seconds.  92 percent of all poison exposures were reported in the home.  You can also excess a wealth of information on the AAPCC’s website.  You can find out how to use poison safety and store poison safely.  In 83.7% of exposures, ingestion is the route of exposure.   This is than followed by inhalation, and unknown routes.  Overall, the information on the AAPCC site and annual report is very useful.   It offers valuable information of trends in the United States.  This information is especially valuable in preventing future poisonings.  The AAPCC is supposed to be releasing another yearly report soon for 2015, giving us further incite into the trends of modern day exposure.