50 Years of Poison Prevention Efforts Result in Lives Saved; Emerging, Toxic Hazards Still Lurk in Many Homes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) celebrates the nation’s longest running public health campaign: National Poison Prevention Week (NPPW), from March 17 to 23, 2013. As a longtime supporter of NPPW, one of the CPSC’s greatest contributions to the effort has been the requirement of child-resistant closures on certain medicines and household chemicals.

When NPPW was launched more than 50 years ago, about 400 children a year died from unintentional poisoning. The most common culprit: aspirin. Today, about 40 children a year die from unintentional poisoning. Although this demonstrates significant progress, CPSC believes that is still too many, which is why the agency continues to identify and address new and recurring poison dangers.

“During National Poison Prevention Week, we celebrate the tremendous success of this public safety campaign,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “There are still children who need to be protected from household poisoning, so we must not let our guard down.  Products that pose a toxic risk to children need to be locked up and put away from their reach.”

The CPSC

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