A tipped-over pill bottle. A spill of bright candy. To a small child, they can look alike. The CPSC poster "Candy or Poison?" warns that children are dying to know the difference. According to the CPSC, nearly 1 million children under the age of five are exposed to potentially poisonous medicines and household chemicals each year.
This message is for parents and for anyone who keeps medicine where young children live or visit.
What Is the Hazard?
The poster is about medicines. The CPSC says children are curious. They may copy how adults use pretty-colored pills, liquids and containers.
The CPSC also says young children often swallow medicines they find where adults left them. Examples include a purse, a nightstand or a pill container.
The CPSC says unintentional pediatric poisoning deaths of children under the age of 5 increased about 53% to 90 from 2021. It says this increase was largely linked to narcotics and psychodysleptics. The CPSC also says pediatric poisoning deaths in the U.S. have risen steadily since 2019, from a low of 17 deaths in 2018.
What Should You Do?
- Keep medicines closed tightly and in their original, labeled containers.
- Place medicines in a locked cabinet, up high and out of a child's sight.
- Keep medicines in their original child-resistant containers and never in unsecured containers.
- Always resecure child-resistant packaging after each use.
- Use child-resistant packages wherever young children live or visit. If child-resistant packaging is not an option, the CPSC says to keep medicines in a locked container, out of reach and out of sight of children.
- Properly discard unfinished or unused medicines.
- For help or more information, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222.
- To report an unsafe product, use SaferProducts.gov or call the CPSC Toll-Free Consumer Hotline at 800-638-2772 (TTY 800-638-8270). The hotline is open 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.
Source:https://www.cpsc.gov/safety-education/safety-guides/containers-and-packaging/candy-or-poison
