Poison Control Centers
A poison control center is a medical facility that is able to provide immediate, free, and expert treatment advice and assistance over the telephone in case of exposure to poisonous or hazardous substances. Poison control centers answer questions about potential poisons in addition to providing treatment management advice about household products, medicines, pesticides, plants, bites and stings, food poisoning, and fumes. More than 72% of poison exposure cases are managed simply by phone, greatly reducing the need for costly emergency room and doctor visits.
In the United States and many of its territories poison control centers can be reached by calling 1-800-222-1222. Free, private, expert help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and in more than 150 languages.
In Canada consult the Canadian Association of Poison Control Centers
Many other countries also have a poison control center network. The WHO maintains a worldwide directory.
For those currently exposed to a poison in a country that does not have a poison control system, visit a local doctor or hospital.
Read more about Poison Control Centers: History
Famous quotes containing the words poison, control and/or centers:
“I expect a time when, or rather an integrity by which, a man will get his coat as honestly and as perfectly fitting as a tree its bark. Now our garments are typical of our conformity to the ways of the world, i.e., of the devil, and to some extent react on us and poison us, like that shirt which Hercules put on.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To try to control a nine-month-old’s clinginess by forcing him away is a mistake, because it counteracts a normal part of the child’s development. To think that the child is clinging to you because he is spoiled is nonsense. Clinginess is not a discipline issue, at least not in the sense of correcting a wrongdoing.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“[Madness] is the jail we could all end up in. And we know it. And watch our step. For a lifetime. We behave. A fantastic and entire system of social control, by the threat of example as effective over the general population as detention centers in dictatorships, the image of the madhouse floats through every mind for the course of its lifetime.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)