UCI Center to Mark Poison Prevention Week

A 3-year-old boy has just swallowed a capful of bleach. His mother, near panic and not sure what to do, calls the emergency number at UCI Medical Center’s Regional Poison Center.

Such cases are almost hourly occurrences in Orange County, and UCI’s poison center often is the first source to which anxious parents will turn to find out how to help their children.

To mark National Poison Prevention Week, which began Sunday, the Poison Prevention Foundation of Orange County has launched an educational program titled “Don’t Let Them Play for Keeps.”

With the support of the Orange County Pharmaceutical Assn., the foundation is distributing educational pamphlets through pharmacies, drug wholesalers and doctors.

Also, the foundation will distribute 5,000 poison-prevention kits at cost to hospitals and medical volunteer groups. The kits include pamphlets on common poisons and information on quick remedies for poison ingestion. The kits will be available at local hospitals or by calling (714) 634-5852.

The UCI Regional Poison Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives about 25,000 calls a year from doctors and hospitals as well as others who need poison information. The emergency number is (714) 634-5988.

National Poison Prevention Week was established 25 years ago to honor this center and others around the country.