Alerts

Keep Up-to-Date on the Latest Poison News

The AAPCC works with America's 55 poison centers to track poisonings and their sources, including household products, food and beverages, chemicals in the workplace and home, environmental toxins, drugs and medicine, and animal and insect bites and stings.

  • Bath Salts

    Synthetic cathinones, or “bath salts” are powerful drugs that can cause hallucinations and violent behavior.

  • E-Cigarette Devices and Liquid Nicotine

    Local poison centers report an uptick in electronic cigarettes and liquid nicotine exposures.

  • Energy Drinks

    Energy drinks can be dangerous for children or adolescents.

  • Laundry Detergent Packets

    Highly concentrated “single-load liquid laundry packets” can cause serious harm to young children.

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  • Support Your Local Poison Center Today!

    Responding to more than 3.1 million calls each year, poison centers save countless American lives and millions of American taxpayer dollars every year by providing free, confidential medical advice to people who have been exposed to poison. AAPCC supports the nation’s 55 poison centers in their efforts to prevent and treat poison exposures.

    #GivingTuesday

  • Load the Poison Help Line in Your Phone!

    Scan the QR code below to automatically store the Poison Help number in your phone! Works on any smart phone platform (must download a free barcode/QR scanner app).

    QR Code!

  • OTC Literacy Program

    Research shows that kids begin to self-administer medicine at around 11-years-old. AAPCC and its partners are continuing their commitment to help educate “tweens” on the safe use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines with their expanded, free OTC Literacy classroom program.

    Learn more

  • Map of America's Poison Centers

    America's 55 poison centers serve every region of the country. This map shows where your local poison center is located.

    Click Here

  • Partners

    The AAPCC partners with many other organizations to address poisoning issues. Click here to learn more

    Click Here

  • Meet Your Poison Center Experts!

    When you call the Poison Help line, a poison expert is on the other end of line to help you. Click below to view the AAPCC Poison Center Spotlight!

    Click Here

  • Poison Centers Save the U.S. $1.8 Billion Per Year

    For every dollar invested in the poison center system, $13.39 are saved in medical costs and lost productivity, for a total savings of more than $1.8 billion every year.

    See the Report

Prevention

In 2013, America’s 55 poison centers received over 3.1 million calls. Of those, about 2.2 million were calls about poison exposures ranging from carbon monoxide to snake bites to food poisoning. The rest were calls for information.

These prevention tips can help you or your loved ones avoid poisonings. For more tips and information, call your local poison center at 1-800-222-1222.

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  • Adults

    Poison centers aren't just for parents whose children get into the cleaning cabinet. Although children younger than 6 accounted for about half of all the poison exposure calls to poison center in 2013, adults accounted for 92 percent of all poison-related deaths reported to poison centers.

    Read more ›

  • Babysitters

    Caring for children is a great job, and keeping children safe is a serious and important part of babysitting. In fact, poisoning is one of the most common childhood injuries.

    Read more ›

  • Children

    You can get poisoned by eating, drinking, touching, or smelling something that can make you sick or hurt you. Always ask a trusted grown-up before you take any medicine. Never put anything in your mouth if you are not sure if it is safe to eat. Ask a grown-up first!

    Read more ›

  • Health Care Providers

    Poison centers are a valuable tool for medical consultations. Poisoning patients managed with poison center expertise experience shorter hospitalizations.

    Read more ›

  • In the Home

    Follow these steps to make sure your home is poison-proof.

    Read more ›

National Poison Data System


AAPCC owns and manages the National Poison Data System (NPDS), a database collating years of information and poisoning exposure calls placed to AAPCC member poison centers across the country. The categorization of these calls into: human or animal poison exposure calls (an actual or suspected exposure occurred where the caller seeks information regarding triage and treatment) and information calls (no exposure occurred; the caller just seeks information regarding a specific substance) allows for the granularity necessary to evaluate and analyze toxic exposure patterns. NPDS is the only near real-time comprehensive poisoning surveillance database in the United States.

AAPCC publishes a comprehensive report of NPDS call data annually, approximately one year after the close of the data year in the journal Clinical Toxicology and is available for download free-of-charge by clicking “Current Annual Report” below. 

To learn more about NPDS click the “Request Data” link below.

Request Data Current Annual Report past reports

Our Work

The AAPCC's mission is to actively advance the health care role and public health mission of our members through information, advocacy, education and research. 

The AAPCC is located at 515 King St., Suite 510, Alexandria, Va. 22314. 

Phone: 703.894.1858

Email: info@aapcc.org

About AAPCC ›Working with the AAPCC ›

Press Releases

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Find Your Local Poison Center

Poison centers offer free, private, confidential medical advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can reach your local poison center by calling 1-800-222-1222.

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