Nearly 2.5 million poisonings are reported each year to poison control centers across the United States. Although half of these poisonings occur in children under the age of 6, adults also are at risk for accidental poisonings.

To create awareness of National Poison Prevention week beginning March 15, Edward Krenzelok, Pharm.D., director, Pittsburgh Poison Center and Drug Information Center, and professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, offers these tips to help protect yourself and others from accidental poisonings.

- Search each room in your home - especially the garage and basement - for poisons within the reach of children. This includes medications, personal care items, cleaning products, automotive fluids and pesticides.

- Add the Pittsburgh Poison Center's phone number, 1-800-222-1222, to your cell phone address book and place it near every home telephone. Even if you're out of town, this number will route you to the nearest poison control center.

- Favor medication bottles with child-resistant closures when available. Remember that these items are not child-proof, and still should be kept out of the reach of children.

- Empty full or partially full alcoholic beverage glasses that are within a child's reach.

- Teach children not to put leaves, stems, bark, seeds, nuts or berries from any plant into their mouths and check whether your plants are a danger.

- You should provide as much of the following information as possible when calling a poison control center: victim's age and weight; name of the type of poison, if known; time of poison exposure; and the address where the poisoning occurred.

- Find a separate place to store medications and other dangerous products. Do not keep these items near food or beverages. It is best to keep all of these items up and out of the reach of children.

- Invest in a carbon monoxide detector/alarm for your home - it's the only way to identify this colorless, odorless and invisible poison.

- Return household products to a child-proof cabinet as soon as you're done using them.

- Start educating kids about the dangers of poison at an early age. For a free sheet of Mr. YukTM stickers, or to purchase other poison education materials, visit www.upmc.com/mryuk.

- Treat every substance as potentially poisonous - anything can be toxic in certain amounts.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
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http://www.upmc.com