J. Wolfle et S. Kowalewski, EPIDEMIOLOGY OF INGESTIONS IN A REGIONAL POISON CONTROL CENTER OVER 20 YEARS, Veterinary and human toxicology, 37(4), 1995, pp. 367-368
This analysis was conducted to demonstrate the pattern and changes of
potential intoxications reported to a German regional poison control c
enter from 1974 to 1993. During this period 155,654 calls were reporte
d of which 111,313 were analyzed. The remaining 44,341 were either of
minor importance of preventive calls; 56% referred to children and 44%
to adults. Substance categories most commonly implicated were drugs,
with a yearly average of 37.6% of the total, followed by household art
icles (31.2%), plants (9.7%) and chemicals (5 9%). in pediatric cases
household articles were the most frequent source of Ingestion followed
by drugs, plants and nutritional substances, whereas in adults drugs
were followed by household articles, chemicals and pesticides. Only 13
.4% of all ingestions were classified as toxic or very toxic. There we
re no major changes in the incidences of the different substance categ
ories during the 20 years. However, there were some changes in the pha
rmaceuticals, probably due to the introduction of new drugs or the wit
hdrawal of the OTC-status of selected drugs.