Poisonings

Unintentional poisonings are the second leading cause of unintentional home injury death in the United States, accounting for more than one-fourth of all home injury deaths. An average of 4,833 people in the United States die each year of an unintentional poisoning that occurs at home.

Poisonings are the fifth leading cause of nonfatal home injuries and the ninth leading cause of home injuries resulting in an emergency department visit. Nonfatal rates are highest among children less than five years of age. Some of these poisonings are likely the result of ingesting household products not properly stored, but we are unable to determine the exact percentage from the data source.

Most poisoning prevention efforts have focused on preventing home poisonings among children, although this only addresses part of the home poisoning problem. Since the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, which authorized the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to regulate packaging for toxic substances used in and around the home, child-resistant packaging has been the only prevention strategy documented in the public health literature to have successfully reduced unintentional poisoning deaths and nonfatal injuries among children. The effects of poison prevention packaging, for those substances covered by the law, have been dramatic in reducing unintentional poisonings in young children.