America's Poison Centers
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America's Poison Centers (formerly known as American Association of Poison Control Centers - AAPCC) is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1958 that represents the nation's 53 poison centers. America's Poison Centers supports Poison Centers in their
public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...
mission to prevent poisonings, provide education, conduct scientific research and treat individuals exposed to poisoning from medications, environmental events,
plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
,
animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...
, and household products or
toxins A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...
. America's Poison Centers also supports the efforts of Poison Centers and interested individuals to reduce
morbidity A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...
and mortality from unintentional poisonings. America's Poison Centers sets standards for Poison Center operations and certifies specialists in poison information who are available 24/7 to respond to public, health-care provider and emergency medical service personnel requests for assistance. In addition, America's Poison Centers maintains the National Poison Data System (NPDS), the only near real-time poison information and surveillance
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
in the United States.


Poison Centers

Poison Centers have been providing vital poison exposure and information services in the United States for more than 70 years. Answering close to three million calls a year, centers save countless lives and millions of tax dollars. Currently, there are 53 Poison Centers in the U.S. that collectively serve all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Federated States of Micronesia, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.


Poison Help Hotline: 1-800-222-1222

Poison Centers provide free, confidential, and expert medical advice via the Poison Help hotline: 1-800-222-1222. Each Poison Center answers calls to Poison Help from a designated geographic area, including calls from the public, hospitals, EMTs, and other health care providers. All calls are answered by physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other medical professionals with specific training in toxicology. This free and confidential service operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Poison Centers provide free, confidential, expert advice via the 24-hour national toll-free Poison Help line. Poison Centers provide immediate poison information and emergency instructions to all callers regardless of health insurance, immigration status, or language preference from any U.S. telephone or cell phone. Calls are answered by physicians, nurses and pharmacists with highly specialized training in poison management. Poison Center services are accessible to all populations, including under-served and undocumented groups, those speaking one of 150 languages and those utilizing telecommunication devices for the hearing-impaired ( TDD/TTY). More than 70 percent of all cases received by Poison Centers can be safely and effectively treated at home, without need for further medical care.


Cost Savings for the Health-Care System

Substantial cost savings have been attributed to Poison Center reductions in unnecessary
emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the Acute (medicine), ...
(ED) care through accurate assessment and
triage In medicine, triage (, ; ) is a process by which care providers such as Health professional, medical professionals and those with first aid knowledge determine the order of priority for providing treatment to injured individuals and/or inform th ...
of poisoning exposures. The public health and cost benefits from Poison Center
pre-hospital Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...
management of patients not needing ED visits favorably impacts the self-pay or co-paying general public, the health-care institution supporting the costs of indigent care, the commercial insurance companies and governmental health-care funding agencies. Poison Centers assess and manage more than 70 percent of poison exposures over the phone, eliminating the need for callers to seek further medical care. This reduction in medically unnecessary ED visits decreases hospital overcrowding and minimizes unnecessary ambulance runs, freeing critical emergency staff to handle true emergencies more effectively.


National Poison Data System (NPDS)

America's Poison Centers owns and manages a large database of information from all poison exposure and information case phone calls to all Poison Centers across the country. It is the only near real-time, comprehensive poisoning surveillance database in the United States. NPDS holds more than 53 million poison exposure case records, with more than 2.5 million new records added each year. It is also a robust and modern system – holding technical medical information that is searchable in many ways. NPDS contains exposure cases dating back to 1985. Today, information and exposure case data is continually uploaded to NPDS from all the Poison Centers in near “real time.” ''NPDS can:'' *Guide clinical research on poisonings. *Prompt new product and medicine formulas. *Help provide evidence for product repackaging, recalls, bans, over-the-counter status changes, product reformulation. *Focus poison prevention education. *Direct training of future medical students. *Detect
chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...
or
bioterrorism Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or their toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in mu ...
incidents. ''Key regulatory agencies that rely on NPDS data: '' *
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...
(CDC) *
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
(FDA) *
Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...
(EPA) *
Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
(DEA) *
Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing "unreasonable risks" of injury ...
(CPSC) NPDS data is also frequently used by pharmaceutical manufacturers.


See also

* ''
Clinical Toxicology ''Clinical Toxicology'' (until 2005, ''Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal of clinical toxicology. It is published by Taylor and Francis and is the official journal of the American Academy of Clinical ...
'', the official journal of America's Poison Centers.


References


External links

*
Official website - PoisonHelp.org

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{{DEFAULTSORT:American Association Of Poison Control Centers Medical associations based in the United States Medical and health organizations based in Virginia Toxicology organizations