The American Association of Poison Control Center’s mission is to actively advance the health care role and public health mission of their members through information, advocacy, education and research. Their website can be accessed by anyone and is very informative about dangerous substances that people can encounter on a daily basis. The first thing featured on the AAPCC’s website is a list of seven alerts on the latest poison news. The most recent alerts on their website are:

1. Bath salts: Synthetic cathinones, most often referred to as bath salts, are highly illegal drugs that cause hallucinations and violent behavior. Sometimes the side effects can become permanent. In 2016, poison centers received reports of 382 exposures to bath salts.
2. E-Cigarettes and Liquid Nicotine:  Some children who came in contact with e-cigarette devices or liquid nicotine have become very ill with nausea and vomiting. AAPCC also advises adults to protect their skin when handling these products.
3. Food and Mushroom Poisoning and Recalls: This is caused by eating contaminated food that contains bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Millions of people become victims of food poisoning every year.
4. Hand sanitizer: Children that ingest hand sanitizer may be at risk of alcohol poisoning. Since some hand sanitizers come in colorful and appealing packaging, children often mistake it for some type of candy.
5. Laundry detergent packets: While normal detergents are known to cause upset stomachs, new highly concentrated single-load laundry detergent packets cause much worse symptoms. Some symptoms include vomiting, wheezing, gasping, sleepiness, and troubled breathing.
6. 
   Synthetic cannabinoids: These drugs can be highly addictive and can cause anxiety, nausea, seizures, and hallucinations. In 2016, poison centers received reports of 2,695 exposures to synthetic cannabinoids.
   7. Opioid (narcotic) pain medication: In 2014, almost two million Americans were dependent on or abused prescription opioids.

The AAPCC’s poison helpline is available 24/7 at 1-800-222-1222. In 2014, someone called a poison center every 11 seconds. In 2015, they received 560,467 calls. The website also has a database where you can see statistics of poison exposure for every year. The most recent statistics come from 2015. Looking at exposure distribution by age and gender, it is very clear that children are exposed to toxic substances way more more than adults. In 2015, 1,319,044 children were exposed while only 835,269 adults were exposed. That is close to double the amount of adults. More male children were exposed to poisons than female children. Oppositely, more female adults were exposed to poisons than male adults. 78.4% of all human exposures are unintentional. Some of the most common unintentional reasons that humans become exposed are: therapeutic error, misuse, bites, stings, occupational reasons, and food poisoning. Some scenarios where people have mistakenly been exposed include: inadvertently taking medication twice, wrong medication was taken or given, incorrect dosage, medication doses taken too close together, taking someone else’s medication, and incorrect formulation or concentration given. Most exposures are caused by some kind of ingestion or inhalation. The most common substances that cause human exposure are analgesics, or painkillers.