by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Whether you've been bitten by a snake or swallowed some acetone, the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center probably has an answer.
"There are a lot of poisons," said Ina Bawaya, public educator for the center.
National Poison Prevention Week started Sunday and ends Saturday.
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The center, part of UNM's Health Sciences Center, takes 40,000 calls a year about possible poisonings.
About half the calls are from people whose children have been poisoned.
"A typical case would be a 2-year-old who is walking around and getting into household chemicals, alcohol (and) medications," she said. "People will store a solvent in a Coca-Cola bottle in the garage. A toddler doesn't know the difference between soda and solvent."
Most children can be treated by their parents with help from the poison hotline, she said.
Children also get poisoning from multivitamins and cosmetics, said Dr. Jeff Benson, director of the center.
"It can be on a counter, or whatever's in your purse or handbag," he said.
Working at the center is not an easy job, he said.
"In some respects, it's very stressful," he said. "When people call, it's typically in the midst of a poisoning. Part of the job entails doing a very quick risk assessment. The other part of it is calming them down and being able to communicate clearly."
Seniors have a high rate of poisoning, he said.
They often overdose on medication, because they are unable to read the labels, or they forget how much they have taken, he said.
"Those people don't do so well," he said. "When you look at the mortality rates, it's worse than for children. They have poorer reserve and often have some health problem already that just compounds the whole situation."
College students rarely call the center, he said.
"Typically, they've outgrown poisoning by not knowing what something is and that they shouldn't ingest it, and they haven't reached the point where they can't read labels," he said.
Emergency rooms call the center for help with poisoning of students, he said.
"When they call us about the poisoning of a young adult, they've been drinking too much, or they've been mixing medications," he said. "They'll try out a drug - often a drug of abuse - that they've never used before, and they'll overdo it."
Some over-the-counter substances, such as cold-sore ointment or oil of wintergreen, are more dangerous than people think, he said.
"Most of us think of a lot of these things as something we wouldn't worry about," he said. "But as little as a tablespoon of some of these things can cause seizures."
The danger of some substances is exaggerated, he said.
"People will, by mistake - their child or they will ingest those little packets that come with electronics," he said. "They say, 'Do not eat' and have a picture of a skull and crossbones. But they're not toxic."
However, people should not hesitate to call the center, he said.
"They should always check with us," he said. "It's not a problem to call us, even if they think they've done something stupid or that they think probably won't matter. We're happy to talk to anybody at any time."
New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center: 800-222-1222
