DnD Partners- Health and Wellness

Scientific Fact, Industry Fiction

Each year, over 1 million children are accidentally poisoned in their homes. 250,000 of these victims are hospitalized. 3,000 children will end up in intensive care. Dozens more will die. Thousands of children and adults are permanently disfigured or injured through contact with chemicals in the home, each year. The amazing fact is, the most common substances that poison children are household cleaners. Many of these products are considered safe! Think of your own home - you probably have dozens of bottles of cleaners, containing hundreds of chemicals. Could an accident happen in your home? American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC)  Among the potentially toxic household products involved with calls to the poison centers were:

• Personal care products, including baby oil and mouthwash containing ethanol;
• Cleaning substances, including drain openers and oven cleaners;
• Over-the-counter pain relievers - including ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin - and cough and cold medicines;
• Hydrocarbons, such as lamp oil and furniture polish; and
• Adult-strength vitamins and supplements containing iron

Ingestion is the route of most immediate poisonings that lead to accidental death. Young children are especially vunerable to household poisonings through ingestion. With their natural curiosity, they learn by putting things in their mouths. This is a fine way to learn, but in a modern household full of toxic chemicals, it's frightening to think of what might happen.

Children cannot tell the difference between lemon-scented toxic furniture polish and lemonade, they both smell the same to a child. A mothball designed to kill insects is the same size and shape as a piece of candy. In addition to these confusions, children can't read warning labels.

When Peter Schwab was one year old, he crawled over to the dishwasher to watch his mother unloading it. Suddenly, he put a finger into the chlorinated detergent and ate a fingerful of wet but undissolved Electrosol. In minutes Peter was being treated in a hospital, and he recovered in a few days. But others that day weren't so lucky. Across the hall was a little girl, who according to Peter's mother, also ate dishwasher detergent and required seven operations to reopen her scarred esophagus.

Another child, three-year old Jasson Whitley, suffered a lingering and horrible death after swallowing only three ounces of hair conditioner. Two weeks after drinking the liquid, which contains ammonia, the little boy died.

Seven-month-old Adrian Gonzalas spilled an open bottle of laundry bleach his mother left on the floor. When he crawled through the puddle, the bleach gave him third-degree burns on fifty percent of his tiny body and burned his lungs from the fumes, as well. After four agonizing days he died.

I know these stories sound frightening, and you may think this could not happen to your child, but each year five to ten million accidental poisonings are reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers. Among children ages five and under, the most common poison is a household cleaner or personal care product.

In a 5 year study…. the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) found that air born chemical levels in homes were as much as 70 times higher inside then outside. It's alarming but true - scientists and doctors have discovered that there is a connection between our health and the use of common everyday household chemicals. If yours is the typical home, you probably use dozens of cleaning and personal care products, purchased at the local grocery store, which contain chemical ingredients that could be harmful to your health and the health of your loved ones.