Accessing poisons information

There are thousands of chemicals including drugs, pesticides, household products, cosmetics and toiletries in addition to human foods, plants, fungi and venomous animals that pose a potential risk to pets and livestock. There are also various factors that affect the toxicity and risk of particular toxins; obviously this includes dose, but species differences, breed, age and pre-existing conditions, co-ingestants and for plants, seasonal risks, differences in the distribution of the toxin(s) in the plant parts, and the effect of cooking or drying may also play a role.

In view of the vast array of substances that pose a potential risk it cannot be expected that you can remember all the relevant information or indeed have heard of many of the substances that may be involved. This is a role fulfilled by poisons information services (www.who.int/ipcs/poisons/centre/en/); they provide information on prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of poisoning and are involved in toxicovigilance — the active process of identifying and evaluating toxic risks, and evaluating the measures taken to reduce or eliminate them. So in addition to giving advice on case management, poison centres also collect and analyse case data and trends.