Poison Control Centers

Source:  Poison Control Program, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008; adapted from the top 10 ranking of injury deaths by the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Statistics include unintentional poisoning, suicide poisoning and undetermined poisoning.) 

• More than half of the nearly 2.5 million poisonings reported to poison control centers in 2007 involved children under age 6. The most common sources of exposures were cosmetics or personal care products.

• Unintentional poisonings annually cause the deaths of approximately 100 children under age 15. Carbon monoxide (CO) is the leading cause of poisoning deaths; about seven children under age 15 die each year from CO exposure.

• Unintentional poisoning deaths in children under age 5 have declined with child-resistant packaging of prescription medications, and CO detectors are estimated to prevent half of CO deaths in residences.

• There are 61 poison control centers in the United States.

• PCCs are public resources that provide treatment advice, administer public and professional poison awareness education and use the National Poison Data System to provide poisoning surveillance.

• PCCs provide treatment advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over the phone by nurses, pharmacists and doctors for more than 70 percent of exposures, reducing emergency room visits, ambulance use and hospital admissions. PCCs reduce deaths, illness severity, health care costs and length of hospital stays.  According to the Institute of Medicine, every dollar spent on PCC services saves $7 in medical spending. 

• Establishing stable, long-term funding continues to be a challenge for these institutions. PCCs generally lack centralized funding, and piecemeal funding causes overall financial instability. In 2004, almost 30 percent of PCCs surveyed by the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported a serious threat of closure within the past five years.

• The federal Poison Control Center Enhancement Awareness Act of 2008 provides grants administered through the Health Resources and Services Administration to fund PCCs and authorizes funds for a national toll-free phone number. PCC services are available to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

• At least 30 states have statutes related to poison control centers. 

• Most states fund PCCs through general appropriations; some states also receive some funding from grants and donations.  Other states receive limited supplemental funding through telephone surcharges, 911 fees or funds accrued from the sale of certain license plates.

• As of 2008, 13 states require health care providers to report cases of acute carbon monoxide poisoning, and 15 states have laws that require carbon monoxide detectors in residences.

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