Medication Safe

Medication safety is something we constantly think about at medicationsafe.com. Dr. Ben has been at the poison control center for 10 years and deals with poisonings in children, teenagers and adults daily. Finally, there is a product that can be used to lock up medications securely. It’s called the Rx Locker.

We first came across the product through the blog: http://3kidsandus.com/2010/rx-locker-keeping-kids-safe-from-prescription-drugs/.

The Rx Locker (www.RxLocker.com) from Locker Brand, Inc. (www.lockerbrand.com) is targeted toward parents of teenagers, concerned about the rising trend of prescription drug abuse. It’s endorsed by Dr. Drew Pinsky. A PR Newswire article can be found here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-drew-debuts-the-rx-locker-to-help-prescription-drug-abuse-among-teens-80888242.html.

We can envision many other uses for the Rx Locker. If you have one, please let us know how you like it and how you’re using it. Leave a comment or email us at info@medicationsafe.com.

Every year during the holidays, Poison Control Centers nationwide field numerous calls concerning ingestion of poinsettias and mistletoe. They just aren’t the killers that everyone thinks they are. The American Association of Poison Control Centers urges people to ”Treat Poinsettias and Mistletoe with Respect Rather Than Fear This Holiday Season”.

Poinsettias and mistletoe, while lovely symbols of the holiday season, have long been thought to be gravely poisonous.

But while ingesting these holiday plants can cause discomfort, data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers indicates they are not quite the deadly hazards they’ve long been believed to be.

The entire article can be found here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/american-association-of-poison-control,1085047.shtml.

If you think your child has tasted, touched or breathed something harmful, call your local poison control center. Poison Control Centers nationwide are accessed by calling 1-800-222-1222.

The holidays are fast approaching and we encourage people to take a minute to think about preventing poisoning in their children. The holidays are a joyous time when family and friends gather together. It is also a time of year with an increased occurence of poisonings in children. While busily preparing for the holidays, children are more likely to be left unsupervised for a short amount of time. Visiting grandparents, family and friends with medications in their luggage or purse are frequent sources of a poisoning exposure in children. It takes only a short time for a child to get into medications but may lead to a lengthy visit to the Emergency Room.

A few tips to be especially mindful of during the holidays:

Store medications locked out of children’s sight and reach.

Tell grandparents, family and friends about avoiding medication poisoning when they visit or your family visits their homes.

For a great article with general tips about “Keeping kids safer around medicines, poisons” please go here: http://www.forteustiswheel.com/articles/2009/11/24/news/top_stories/top03.txt.

If you think your child has tasted, touched or breathed something harmful, call your local poison control center. Poison Control Centers nationwide are accessed by calling 1-800-222-1222.

Data analyzed from calls taken by the New York City Poison Control Center, provide yet more evidence that special attention needs to be taken to prevent poisonings. Medications, as the leading cause of childhood poisoning, are particularly concerning.

From the article:

In fact, poisoning is the third leading cause of hospitalizations for injury among children ages one to four. Each year, New York City’s Poison Control Center (PCC) receives approximately 4,000 calls reporting poisonings of children under the age of 15 serious enough to require referral to, or treatment by, a health care professional. An overwhelming 75% of these calls involve children younger than five.

These are among the findings of a new report by the New York City Health Department, “Unintentional Poisoning in New York City Children,” that analyzes PCC phone traffic from 2000 through 2007. Although many incidents of poisoning are managed at home, the new report focuses on child poisonings that require treatment at a health care facility.

“From prescription drugs to oven cleaner, common household products can be deadly in a child’s hands,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner. “Even a relatively low dose of an otherwise harmless substance can cause serious injury. Storing household chemicals and medications where children can’t get to them, carefully following medication dose instructions, and storing all hazardous products in child-resistant containers are three ways parents can help protect their young children from potential poisoning.”

Medications are leading cause of childhood poisoning

Medications, including both prescription and non-prescription drugs, are the leading cause of poisoning in young children, accounting for nearly half of all PCC cases. Household cleaning products and pest control chemicals follow at 21%. The remaining poisoning calls received by the PCC usually involve cosmetics, vitamins and dietary supplements.

The full article can be found here:
http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/50/32831/most-unintentional-childhood-poisonings-occur-home.html

We came across an internet site with some recommendations regarding “First Aid for Poisoning”.

The recommendations included:

1. Find the container. Identifying the poison is the first step in selecting the right antidote.

2. Call the nearest doctor, giving him all the details as clearly as possible.

3. Rush the victim to hospital if you are close enough. Take the poison along with you in its original container, so the doctor will know what antidote to use.

4. UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE: Neutralize the poison if you know whtat it is. If you don’t  here is the universal antidote:

• Wood charcoal, 2 parts (burned toast may be substitute)
• Milk of magnesia, 1 part
• Tannic Acid, 1 part (strong tea)
• Gave 1 teasponful of a glass of water.

5. Induce vomiting. Lay the child your kness with his head down, and place your fingers at the back of his throught to induce vomiting. For an older child or adult, give one or two glasses of milk or white of an egg. Use water if nothing else is handy. A teasponful of salt added to the water will increase the tendency to vomit.

Some advice out there, may do more HARM than good. There is little in the above recommendations that we would agree with. If you think your child, yourself, or someone you know, may have touched, tasted or breathed something that may be harmful: DON’T GUESS. BE SURE.

Call your poison control center for advice. Poison Control Centers can be reached by calling 1-800-222-1222.

From the UK.

The Health Protection Agency commissioned National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) has reported an 11% rise in the number of telephone enquiries from health professionals relating to incidents involving children aged under 10 years.

Around 92 per cent of the 18,864 enquiries were caused by the accidental poisoning of children with substances found in the home such as ibuprofen, paracetamol and the desiccant silica gel.

Professor Simon Thomas, director of NPIS (Newcastle), added: “The high proportion of our enquiries that involve children continues to be a concern. Parents and guardians should do all they can to keep children away from contact with potentially harmful medicines and from chemicals used in the house or garden. Where possible, these substances should be kept locked away and in child-proof containers.”

The entire press release can be found here: http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1252326273170?p=1231252394302

We came across some great recommendations, regarding childproofing the bathroom for medicines, posted on consumerreports.org from April 2007.

 The full article can be found here: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/resource-center/keeping-baby-safe-404/bathroom/0704_keeping-baby-safe_bathroom.htm?INTKEY=195BSE0

We’ll post the pertinent information here.

Medicines. Keep medicines away from bedside tables and install a lock on the medicine cabinet well out of your child’s reach. You can also store medications in a childproof, locked box kept on a high shelf outside the bathroom. Put vitamin supplements out of reach, too–iron pills and vitamins containing iron are leading child poisoners. Choose child-resistant packaging for prescription and over-the-counter drugs and vitamin supplements. Never keep medicines inside a purse in containers without childproof caps. Store visitors’ handbags out of reach, such as on a high shelf. You never know. They might contain pill bottles without these caps, or small items that could be choking hazards. Discard expired drugs in their child-resistant packaging; don’t just empty the contents in the garbage.

This article ran in the Atlanta Journal constitution. Based on a report from the CDC, the leading cause of accidental poisonings among American children can be found in the family medicine cabinet.

TUESDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthDay News) — The leading cause of accidental poisonings among American children can be found in the family medicine cabinet, a new government report shows.

Each year in the United States, more than 71,000 children aged 18 and younger are seen in emergency rooms for unintentional overdoses of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, the researchers found.

In fact, more than two-thirds of emergency department visits are due to poisoning from prescription and over-the-counter medications — that’s more than double the rate of childhood poisonings caused by household cleaning products, plants and the like, the team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

“Medication overdoses are most common among 2-year-olds,” added lead researcher Dr. Daniel Budnitz, director of the CDC’s Medication Safety Program in the division of health-care quality promotion. “About one out of every 180 2-year-olds visits an emergency department for a medication overdose each year.”

Dr. Robert Geller, a professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and medical director of the Georgia Poison Center, said that “the number children seen in the emergency room due to overdoses that are unintentional or medication errors is remarkable.”

Geller noted that many more people reach out to poison control centers for help than show up at the hospital. “Right now, poison centers are having their funding cut,” he noted. “If poison centers are less available, the number of children going to emergency rooms will rise.”

More than 80 percent of these overdoses are due to unsupervised ingestion, Budnitz noted. “Basically, it’s young children finding and eating medicine without adult supervision,” he said. “They are found with an empty bottle or pills in their mouth or something, and they are taken to the emergency department.”

In addition, medication errors by caregivers or adults and misuse of drugs by preteens and teens cause about 14 percent of accidental poisonings, Budnitz said. “Basically, that’s not following directions,” he said.

The full news article can be found here: http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/drab/629675.html. 

We will attempt to link to the published article when it becomes available.

Update, the full text of the published article,

Medication overdoses leading to emergency room visits in children. Schillie SF, Shehab N, Thomas KE, Budnitz DS., Am J Prev Med. 2009 Sep;37(3):181-7., can be found here: http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/PIIS0749379709003894/fulltext.

Here are some good medication safety tips from Brian Wolfe, Pharm.D., BCPS who is the inpatient clinical pharmacy coordinator at Ball Memorial Hospital. The article was originally posted online by thestarpress.com on June 22, 2009.

The full article can be found here: http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090622/LIFESTYLE/906220304.

Are there any special precautions I should take with my children’s medicines?

ASHP recommends following these five tips:

 From the PRNewswire, June 4 2009

The entire press release can be found here: http://sev.prnewswire.com/null/20090604/PH2747104062009-1.html

Annual Hands on Home Safety Campaign Encourages Families to Take Action to Protect Against the Leading Causes of Accidental Home Injury

Just in time for Home Safety Month in June, the national, nonprofit Home Safety Council (HSC) has launched a new, interactive and consumer-friendly Web site — HomeSafetyCouncil.org — and is debuting results of a national survey that reveal the root of the home accident problem.

Parents and caregivers need to take greater action in order to reduce the nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical visits that result from home injuries on average each year. The Home Safety Council’s annual Hands on Home Safety campaign calls on families to take steps to prevent the leading causes of accidental home injury: falls, poisoning, fires/burns, drowning, and choking/suffocation. The new Web site offers simple and easy tips caregivers can follow to keep loved ones of all ages safe at home.

“Our research shows that most parents and other caregivers lack the basic information they need to make their homes safer for themselves and their loved ones,” said Meri-K Appy, Home Safety Council president. “So, we designed our new Web site to bridge that gap, using targeted information for all stages of life. This helps caregivers hone in on the dangers most relevant to their own families. And, we break home safety into simple, illustrated and easy-to-understand steps so everyone can understand what to do to reduce injury risks.”

Prevent Poisoning

Poisoning is the second leading cause of home injury, yet 40 percent of parents surveyed report that they do not store medications in high cabinets that are secured with safety locks. And only half of the parents surveyed have installed a carbon monoxide detector to protect against the invisible and deadly gas.

The Home Safety Council recommends the following steps to protect against poisonings:

• Read the warning label before using potentially poisonous products.
• If you see the words “Caution”, “Warning”, “Danger”, “Poison” or “Keep Out of Reach of Children”, lock these items in a place where children can’t reach them.
• Use medications carefully. Follow the directions.
• Install carbon monoxide detectors near sleeping areas.
• Call the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 if you need help or want information about poisons.
• Call 9-1-1 if someone needs to go to the hospital right away.