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3/5/2010 10:27:55 AM

National Poison Prevention Week, March 15-21

National Poison Prevention Week emphasizes the most common poisoning risks for adults and children, and offer educational resources for parents to protect their children and adults to make informed decisions regarding their use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Safe Kids USA offers these tips:

Lock up potential poisons out of sight and reach of kids. This includes makeup, medicine, plants, cleaning products, pesticides, art supplies, and beer, wine, and liquor.

Never leave kids alone with an open container of something you wouldn’t want them to ingest. A child can be poisoned in a matter of seconds.

Don’t refer to medicine or vitamins as candy and don’t involve children as helpers with your medication.
Choose medicines and products with child-resistant caps. When you are giving medicine to your children, follow dosage directions carefully.

Keep products in their original containers. Read labels to learn if a product is poisonous and for first aid information.

If your home was built before 1978, test for lead-based paint and have your child tested for lead exposure. Children inhale the dust of lead-based paint and can build-up enough lead in their blood to affect intelligence, growth, and development.

Install a carbon monoxide alarm outside every sleeping area and on every level of your home. Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless gas that builds up around fuel-burning appliances and cars in garages. It can make a child seriously ill in concentrations that would barely affect an adult.

Know which plants in and around your home can be poisonous.

Discuss these precautions with grandparents and care givers. They may have medications very dangerous to children and their homes might not be as well child-proofed as yours.

For poison emergencies, call the Poison Control Center at(800) 222-1222 or in the Omaha area call (402) 955-555.