American Association of Poison Control Centers dedicated to actively advancing the health care role and public health mission of our members through information, advocacy, education and research.

 Someone calls a poison center every 8 seconds  Every 90 seconds, a physician consults a poison center

 501(c)3  Accreditation/Certification  Public Education and Outreach  Media Education and Outreach  Data  Public Health Alerts  Advocacy  National Partners  Publish Annually

Who Calls Poison Centers? Public: 82%; Health Care: 18%  Parents/Caregivers  Physicians/Nurses  Pharmacists  Veterinarians  Urgent Care Centers  Occupational Medicine Centers  Health Departments  Industry  PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point)  Paramedics/Fire  Police  Prison Officials  Coroners  Attorneys  Schools  Government

 Medical Advice, Adverse Event Reporting  Surveillance  Public Health Information and Reporting  Food Poisoning, Rabies, WMD  Research

All 50 States, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, 3 Pacific Jurisdictions 57 Centers Upload Data to NPDS Every 19 minutes

Most Common Poisons

Medical Advice  Triage and care advice, 24 x 7 x 365  Treatment recommendations  Pre-hospital guidelines  Board-certified physician backup  Potential for prescribing o H1N1

 Monitor for early indicators of outbreaks  Continuous search for patterns suggesting covert chemical, radiological or biological events  Rapid detection and reporting of chemical, radiological and biological events  Identify chemicals, products, environmental agents and consumer products with potential public health significance

11 Response: How Do Poison Centers Help? Health Emergency Announced 123 “Tools” for Responding to Qs Public initially receives information from the mass media Nearly 25% of the public have questions that centers can help with Nurse Line Poison Center Health Hot Line Partners relay accurate, up-to-date, consistent messages and collect data from public Controlled Messages

 Contaminated water  Melamine in dog food  Diethylene glycol in toothpaste  E. coli in spinach  Salmonella in peanut butter  Supplement with high concentrations of selenium  Bath salts and THC homolog abuse  Japanese earthquake, tsunami and radiation release  Highly concentrated liquid laundry detergent  Hand sanitizer abuse  Gulf of Mexico oil spill

“On Wednesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration clamped down on ‘bath salts,’ [with help from] The American Association of Poison Control Centers [which] has logged 4,137 reports of illness from those drugs as of July 31, up from 302 calls in 2010.” 9/28/11

Why Do We Do It? Dart RC. The Secret Life of America’s Poison Centers. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2012; 59:62.

 Social Media Outreach ◦ Facebook ◦ Twitter ◦ Blog  National Media Outreach ◦ News releases ◦ Spokesperson interviews ◦ Media contacts ◦ White House even t

 American Academy of Pediatrics  American Association of Poison Control Centers  American Cleaning Institute  American College of Emergency Physicians  American Pharmacists Association  ASTM International  Art & Creative Materials Institute Inc.  Consumer Specialty Products Association  Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council  National Safety Council  Safe Kids Worldwide  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission  U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration

 Identified issue mid-May 2012  Distributed news release alert May 17  Developed fact sheet with safety information for parents/caregivers  Notified ACI about issue and shared news release  Posted ACI information on AAPCC website Keep Highly Concentrated Packets of Laundry Detergent Locked Up and Out of the Reach of Kids

How Can AAPCC Support Your Messages?

Debbie Carr, M.Ed. Executive Director AAPCC