NEW DELHI: An analysis of telephone calls received between 2006 and 2016 by the National Poisons Information Centre, has revealed that over 61 per cent cases of poison consumption incidents involved children and mostly happened due to unintentional or exploratory swallowing of pesticides and household cleaners.
The analysis carried out by NPIC at AIIMS, Delhi is based on 16,420 calls it received from treating physicians who had specific queries on treatment. The analysis by Sharda Shah Peshin and Y K Gupta says that majority of the calls -7,114- were related to household products-others being pharmaceuticals, agricultural pesticides and industrial chemicals. Of these adults over 18 and children below 18 constituted 38.7 per cent and 61.2 per cent calls respectively.
The researchers also found that males outnumbered females and the mode of poisoning was mainly unintentional followed by intentional mode and the commonest route of exposure was oral. In most cases, household pesticides were commonly implicated followed by household cleaners while thermometer mercury balls, antiseptics, kerosene and paint thinner were culprits in other cases. Miscellaneous products comprising of camphor, silica gel, hair dye, nail polish remover, cosmetics, adhesives and others were also involved in about 17 per cent of poisoning incidents.
“A diverse range of household products commonly used for domestic purposes comprise pesticides, household cleaners, thermometer mercury, antiseptics, kerosene, paint thinners etc. Any of these products, if misused or mishandled can cause poisoning. The results do indicate an increased incidence of poisoning due to household products especially in children. The probable reasons for high incidence could be careless storage, ignorance, non-compliance with prescribed instructions for use and negligible parental supervision in case of children,” Peshin and Gupta have said in the analysis.
They have also argued for an urgent need to identify high risk circumstances, common toxic products involved and implementation of prevention and awareness programmes, to achieve poisons control at home.