COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN THE FIRE SERVICE

March 18-24 is National Poison Prevention Week

Each year, about 91,000 kids ages 14 and under are treated in emergency rooms for accidental poisoning and about 100 die. Nearly 90 percent of these toxic exposures occur in the home, and over 40 percent of the time, these poisonings involve medications. Cosmetics, cleansers, personal care products, plants, pesticides, art supplies, alcohol and toys are also responsible for accidental poisonings.

It doesn't take much to make a small child sick. Kids have faster metabolisms than adults and anything they ingest will be absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly. Safe Kids Worldwide and the Cardinal Health Foundation remind parents and caregivers to keep hazardous household goods, especially medicines, locked out of reach.

Child-resistant packaging for medications is credited with saving hundreds of children's lives since its introduction in the 1970s, and childhood lead poisoning declined by 80 percent in the 15 years after unleaded gasoline and paint became industry standards. Still, there is no substitute for active supervision and childproofing. If a product label says "keep out of reach of children" there's a reason. Keep it up high and in a locked cabinet.

Safe Kids Worldwide reminds parents to keep the poison control hotline number handy. Memorize this toll-free number: 800-222-1222. Keep it near every phone in your home and program it into your cell phone. From anywhere in the United States, this number connects to the local poison control center.

Call 911, not poison control, if a child is choking, having trouble breathing or having a seizure. Follow the 911 operator's instructions. Do not induce vomiting or give the child any fluid or medication unless directed.

Safe Kids Worldwide offers these additional tips:

• Don't refer to medicine or vitamins as candy. Children should not think of therapeutic substances as treats. And when you are administering medicine to your children, follow dosage directions carefully.

• Do not flush expired medications down the toilet. They can contaminate soil and groundwater. Contact your pharmacist to get instructions on the best way to dispose of expired medications. Some pharmacists will accept expired medications at their store for disposal or offer instructions on the best way to handle it if they don't.

• Discuss these precautions with grandparents and relatives. Grandparents may have medications that can be very dangerous to children, and their homes might not be as well childproofed as yours.

• Get your home tested for lead. Kids inhale the dust of lead-based paint and can build up enough lead in their blood to affect intelligence, growth and development. An estimated 890,000 children ages 1 to 5 have too much lead in their blood. Lead-based paint was used in homes until 1978, so it's important to have older homes tested.

• Install a carbon monoxide detector in every sleeping area. Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless gas that builds up around fuel-burning appliances — and cars in garages — and is present in tobacco smoke. It can make a child seriously ill in concentrations that would barely affect an adult.

• Stay alert while using cleaning products or other potentially harmful substances. A child can be poisoned in a matter of seconds. Never leave kids alone with an open container of something you wouldn't want them to ingest.

• Learn which plants are poisonous. Keep poisonous houseplants out of reach, and teach children not to put any part of an outdoor plant in their mouths without adult supervision.

• Learn CPR. In less than three hours, you can learn effective interventions that can give a fighting chance to a child whose breathing and heartbeat have stopped. Ask your local hospital, fire department or recreation department where to get CPR training.

Visit our new poison prevention Web site to play educational games for kids and parents to play together, download poison safety checklists for parents and caregivers, explore an interactive house of poison-related hazards, e-mail free greeting cards with poison prevention messages, and enter a contest to name our poison prevention mascot. (The winning entry will receive $250.) And remember the theme of National Poison Prevention Week (March 18-24): "Kids act fast — so do poisons!"