u/USPoisonControl

A reminder from Poison Control ahead of July 4th: the small hand-held fireworks (sparklers, snake pellets, bang snaps) aren't just a burn risk; they're made from some genuinely toxic ingredients: 

- Sparklers: metallic fuel (aluminum, iron, sulfur) + an oxidizer like barium nitrate

- Snake pellets (domestic): ammonium perchlorate, asphalt, nitronaphthalene

- Snake pellets (imported): can contain mercury thiocyanate, arsenic, and barium salts

- Bang snaps: gravel wrapped around silver fulminate

Two real cases: a 16-month-old chewed on a sparkler and vomited 8 times overnight (needed overnight monitoring for electrolyte issues, ended up fine), and a 2-year-old swallowed two snake fireworks nobody saw fall (also fine after 24 hours of monitoring and activated charcoal).

Beyond the usual fireworks safety tips (keep it legal, keep kids from lighting them, keep away from anything flammable), add these two: don't let anyone lick or swallow a firework, and watch for smoke inhalation.

If you think someone's had an exposure, you can get free, confidential help 24/7 online at webPOISONCONTROL.org or by calling 1-800-222-1222.

Learn more: https://www.poison.org/articles/fireworks-safety-tips-202

Roses and violets are actually both on the non-poisonous list, but a lot of common garden and houseplants aren’t. If you’re curious which is which, here’s an illustrated rundown of poisonous and non-poisonous plants: https://www.poison.org/articles/plant

And if someone (a kid, a curious adult, a determined toddler) ends up tasting a plant they shouldn’t have, webPOISONCONTROL is a free, confidential online tool that gives you a recommendation in a few minutes, or you can call a poison center at 1-800-222-1222.

We’re the National Capital Poison Center (the team behind webPOISONCONTROL at poison.org), and we want to share some expert guidance on using sunscreen safely this season.

**The basics: use it as directed:**

• Apply sunscreen to all exposed skin 15–30 minutes before going outside

• Choose a broad-spectrum (UVA + UVB) product with SPF 15–30, sufficient for most people

• Reapply every 2 hours and after swimming or sweating

• UV rays penetrate clouds. Don’t skip sunscreen on overcast days

**Kids:**

• Sunscreen is safe for children 6 months and older

• For infants under 6 months, use shade, hats, and protective clothing instead

**What if something goes wrong?**

Swallowed some: Sunscreen has low toxicity. A small amount may cause mild nausea or stomach upset, but serious effects are unlikely. Wipe out the mouth and monitor.

In the eyes: Rinse immediately with running water for 15–20 minutes, blinking while rinsing. Many sunscreens are water-resistant, so longer rinsing may be needed.

Skin reaction: Some ingredients, including oxybenzone and other benzophenones — can cause photoallergic dermatitis (a rash only in sun-exposed areas that can resemble a sunburn). Switching to a different formula usually resolves it.

**Is sunscreen safe overall?** Yes. The FDA recommends its use, and sunscreens are not classified as known human carcinogens. Some products were recalled in 2021 due to benzene contamination, but concentrations found were below levels expected to cause acute health effects. The benefits of sunscreen use outweigh the risks.

For any sunscreen concern, get free, confidential guidance in under 3 minutes: triage.webpoisoncontrol.org

Expert articles: search “sunscreen” at poison.org

It happens to pretty much every parent at some point. You turn your back for 30 seconds and your 2-year-old is covered in bubblegum toothpaste, some of which definitely ended up in their stomach. The good news: small amounts of regular OTC fluoride toothpaste are unlikely to cause serious problems. The most common outcome is a brief stomach ache. 

What to do:

— Offer milk or yogurt — calcium binds with fluoride and helps limit any effects

— Watch for stomach upset, nausea, or diarrhea

— Do NOT induce vomiting

What about prescription-strength toothpaste? Different situation — it has about 4x the fluoride of regular toothpaste. Use webPOISONCONTROL or call 1-800-222-1222 for guidance.

Training toothpaste (fluoride-free)? Not usually a toxicity concern, but it's sweetened with sorbitol, which has a mild laxative effect. Prepare accordingly.

webPOISONCONTROL has managed nearly 20,000 cases involving toothpaste since 2015! You're not a bad parent; you just have a toddler. 

Free, confidential triage in under 3 minutes: triage.webpoisoncontrol.org

More info: poison.org/articles/toothpaste

Happy World Bee Day! We put together a quick reel covering three bee-related hazards: why honey is dangerous for babies under 12 months (infant botulism), how to tell a normal bee sting from anaphylaxis and what first aid to do for each, and why the honey eye drop trend can actually damage your eyes. For any bee-related or other poison exposure, free expert guidance is available 24/7 at poison.org. If this is useful, please upvote or share, you may help save a life.

Today is the birthday of Thomas Midgley Jr., the chemist who invented both leaded gasoline and CFCs, both with the best of intentions, both with catastrophic consequences. We named our latest safety reel after him.  “Meet the Modern Midgleys” walks through three gasoline exposure scenarios, a toddler, a preteen, and an adult, and the well-intentioned decisions behind each one. With summer here, it felt timely: since 2015, webPOISONCONTROL has managed more than 16,000 hydrocarbon cases, including gasoline.  Three things worth knowing:  Never store gasoline in drink or food containers. Even temporarily. Toddlers can’t tell a Gatorade bottle from a gas container, and gasoline is especially dangerous if it enters the lungs.  Use gasoline only in well-ventilated areas. Fumes in an enclosed space, like a garage with the door mostly closed, build up fast and can cause dizziness, confusion, and neurological symptoms.  Never siphon gasoline by mouth. This one surprises people. It’s extremely common, especially when draining a lawn mower at end of season. One mouthful can aspirate into the lungs and cause pneumonia. A pump siphon costs about $10 at any hardware store.  For more detail, poison.org has several articles on gasoline poisoning prevention. For possible exposures, free help is available at poison.org or by calling a poison center at 1-800-222-1222. #webpoisoncontrol #poisoncontrol

It's one of those parenting moments nobody warns you about. You give your child their evening dose of allergy medicine. Your partner comes home, doesn't realize you already did it, and gives them another dose. Or you forgot you already gave the morning ADHD medication and give it again yourself. This is called double dosing, and it's one of the most common medication errors families face. Since 2015, webPOISONCONTROL, a free online tool run by the National Capital Poison Center, has managed 134,793 double dose cases. Here's what matters: whether a double dose is a problem depends entirely on the medication, the dose, and your child. Some medications have a wide safety margin. Others, like ADHD medications, antidepressants, blood pressure meds, and diabetes drugs, are more serious when doubled. So what do you do? Go to poison.org and use the webPOISONCONTROL triage tool. It's free, confidential, available 24/7, and delivers expert-backed guidance in under 3 minutes. If symptoms develop or your situation isn't covered, call a poison center at 1-800-222-1222. Don't guess. Get an answer.

Since 2015, webPOISONCONTROL has managed nearly 47,000 cases of children under 13 swallowing foreign bodies -- including batteries. Ninety percent involved kids under age 6. Here's what the data actually shows about risk level.

LEGO bricks and smooth plastic pieces: Almost no ER referrals. If your kid ate a LEGO Yoda, you're almost certainly fine, but it never hurts to check!

Water beads: This is the one that surprises people. Water beads look tiny and harmless -- they're marketed as sensory toys -- but they can expand significantly inside the digestive tract and cause bowel obstruction requiring surgery. They are the Ewoks of your toy bin. Cute. Colorful. Do not underestimate them.

Coins: Generally low risk but worth checking, particularly depending on coin size and the child's age.

Button batteries: These power light-up toys, talking figures, remote controls -- all common toy bin residents.

Multiple magnets: When two or more strong magnets are swallowed, they can attract through intestinal walls, causing perforation and serious injury.

For unintentional exposures, webPOISONCONTROL at poison.org is free and available 24/7 -- by mouth, eye, skin, inhalation, and more. For emergencies, call 911 or go to the ER. You can also call a poison center at 1-800-222-1222.

[Source: National Capital Poison Center / webPOISONCONTROL -- poison.org/articles/foreign-body-ingestion-toys]

It's National Laundry Day and “What's in That? Wednesday”, so here's a real breakdown of laundry product risk levels. We're framing it as a suspect lineup because the twist at the end is actually the data point. 

PODS: Highest concern. The liquid is highly concentrated — ethoxylated alcohols up to 70%, propylene glycol up to 15%. The water-soluble membrane dissolves immediately on contact with moisture, including saliva. Serious effects can follow quickly in young children. Even after 2015 voluntary safety standards reduced exposure rates ~30% and serious cases ~40%, pods still carry more risk than traditional formats.

LIQUID DETERGENT: Moderate-high. pH 9.5-12, some concentrates higher. More concerning per volume than powder. Eye, skin, and GI irritant.

POWDER DETERGENT: Low-moderate. pH 9-11.5. GI irritant; aspiration risk if vomited. Irritating but generally manageable.

FRAGRANCE BEADS: CHARGES DROPPED. Composed primarily of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000 — up to 75-99% of the product. PEG 3350 is the active ingredient in Miralax. Numbers above PEG 3000 are not readily absorbed. Small accidental ingestions are genuinely low concern. (Still a potential choking hazard and eye irritant, so keep away from kids.)

The actual primary suspect: the 1-year-old. Since 2015, webPOISONCONTROL has managed 35,539 laundry product exposure cases — about 9 per day. 77.1% involve children under 6. One in three involve a 1-year-old.

webPOISONCONTROL is a free, confidential online triage tool for unintentional, single-substance exposures in ages 6 months to 79 years: poison.org

If you're already storing medications safely out of reach of kids and pets, you're ahead of the game. The next step is disposing of unused and expired prescriptions responsibly — and DEA Take Back events are the easiest way to do it. No questions asked, no ID required. Old meds at home are still a poisoning risk for kids, flushing them pollutes water, and for opioids especially, safe disposal prevents diversion and misuse. Find a site at DEA.gov/takebackday.

Most of us have grabbed an ice pack from the freezer or squeezed an instant one without ever reading the label. So: what's actually in there?

Reusable ice packs contain water, propylene glycol (to keep them from freezing solid), a thickening agent, and usually blue dye. A small taste typically causes mild mouth irritation. Large amounts of propylene glycol can cause symptoms similar to alcohol intoxication — drowsiness, unresponsiveness, slowed breathing — but that would require swallowing a significant quantity.

Instant (single-use) ice packs work differently. Squeezing them triggers a chemical reaction — water contacts a reactor, usually ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, or urea, which rapidly drops the temperature. Ammonium nitrate is the most concerning: in larger amounts, it can dilate blood vessels, lower blood pressure, and potentially impair the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells.

Here's the data point that stood out to me: according to webPOISONCONTROL case data, children ages 6–12 appear in ice pack exposure cases at more than twice the rate you'd expect based on overall case data. Makes sense when you think about it — ice packs are in lunchboxes, gym bags, sports sidelines, and school first-aid kits. That's exactly where that age group is.

If there's an exposure, the National Capital Poison Center's webPOISONCONTROL tool at poison.org walks you through it in under 3 minutes. Calling a poison center at 1-800-222-1222 is always an option too. Both are free and available 24/7.

Full article if you want the deep dive: poison.org/articles/whats-inside-ice-packs-201

Today marks the anniversary of Roy J. Plunkett's accidental discovery of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in 1938 — the compound we now know by its trade name, Teflon.

Nonstick cookware is generally safe, but there's a lesser-known risk worth knowing about: polymer fume fever, commonly called Teflon flu. It happens when nonstick coatings are overheated or when damaged pans are used, releasing fumes that can cause chills, fever, fatigue, and headache. Symptoms usually appear a few hours after exposure and resolve within a day or two — which is part of why it's underreported. People often don't connect the symptoms to the pan.

What raises the risk:

• Preheating an empty nonstick pan (it can reach dangerous temperatures very quickly)
• Cooking on high heat or broiling with nonstick cookware
• Using scratched or chipped pans

How to stay safe:

• Cook on low to medium heat
• Never preheat an empty nonstick pan
• Replace damaged cookware
• Keep your kitchen ventilated

Bird owners: This is especially important for you. Pet birds are extremely sensitive to polymer fumes — the first sign of exposure can be sudden death. Keep birds out of the kitchen.

If you or someone in your household is exposed to fumes from a burning pan, get everyone (including pets) out of the area, open windows, and turn off the heat. If symptoms develop, you can use webPOISONCONTROL for free, expert guidance — or call a poison center at 1-800-222-1222.

More info: poison.org/articles/teflon-flu

Creams, lotions, and make-up are among the most common personal care product exposure categories reported to Poison Control. In the webPOISONCONTROL dataset (the National Capital Poison Center's free online triage tool), nearly 15,000 of those cases involve children under 6. That's about 10 times higher than you'd expect based on the proportion of young children in the U.S. population. 

The good news is that most of these turn out to be fine — but parents who aren't sure deserve a fast, reliable answer without having to wait on hold. 

webPOISONCONTROL.org is exactly that: free, online, available 24/7, no phone call needed. It's designed for unintentional exposures in otherwise healthy people ages 6 months to 79. If your situation falls outside that (very young infants, adults over 79, serious underlying conditions, or anything intentional), call 1-800-222-1222 to reach a poison center directly. 

Happy National Body Care Day. May your moisturizer stay where you left it.

Most people grab that blue spray bottle without a second thought. Here's what's actually in it and a few things worth knowing.

Ingredients Glass cleaners typically contain surfactants (lift dirt from surfaces), solvents (dissolve grime), fragrances, and dyes. Some contain ammonia, some contain alcohol, and some are formulated as disinfectants. The label tells you which.

The ammonia + bleach issue If your glass cleaner contains ammonia, never mix it with bleach. That combination produces chloramine gas, which is highly irritating to the nose, mouth, and throat. In some cases it can be serious enough to require hospitalization.

Swallowing it The solvents and surfactants can cause stomach irritation, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Severe cases may involve confusion, drowsiness, and mouth burns.

The eye exposure thing This one surprised me: glass cleaner cases managed by webPOISONCONTROL are more than 3 times as likely to involve the eyes as exposures to other substances — 16% of glass cleaner cases vs. 5% of all other cases. Probably because spray bottles make it easy to accidentally mist your face. If it happens, rinse with room-temperature water for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove contacts first.

If you need help webPOISONCONTROL at poison.org can walk you through any exposure quickly — free, confidential, available 24/7. Or call a poison center at 1-800-222-1222.

Full article from the National Capital Poison Center: https://www.poison.org/articles/is-windex-toxic

Today, March 30th, is National Doctors Day. The date was chosen because on this day in 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first surgery under anesthesia, using sulfuric ether to remove a cyst painlessly. That moment changed medicine forever. The observance was first held in 1933 and formally established by Congress in 1990. President Bush’s proclamation recognized that medicine is a special calling and acknowledged the long hours and sacrifice required of physicians. The red carnation is the traditional symbol of the day. From everyone at the National Capital Poison Center and webPOISONCONTROL, thank you to all the doctors who make their patients’ health and safety their life’s work. Learn more about our free online triage tool at poison.org.

On this day in 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

Most people know secondhand smoke is “bad,” but the specifics are worth knowing. Tobacco smoke contains hundreds of harmful chemicals, including benzene, ammonia, butane, hydrogen cyanide, and toluene. You don’t need to be near a lit cigarette to be exposed; smoke exhaled by a smoker also carries these compounds.

For adults, regular exposure raises the risk of heart disease by 25–30% and stroke by 20–30%. It can also cause lung cancer, and there is evidence linking it to several other cancers as well.

For children, the risks are even more pronounced. Kids exposed at home have higher rates of asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, and middle ear infections. They miss more school, are more likely to end up in the ER, and face elevated risk of SIDS in infancy. There is also emerging evidence linking childhood exposure to behavioral and cognitive effects, including ADHD.

Opening windows and using air purifiers can help but will not fully eliminate the risk. The Surgeon General has stated there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. The only real solution is a smoke-free environment.

The National Capital Poison Center has a plain-language breakdown at poison.org, written by a clinical toxicologist, covering health risks by age, pregnancy, drug testing, and more. https://www.poison.org/articles/secondhand-smoke