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Every 13 seconds, a U.S. poison control center receives a call about an unintentional poisoning.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports that more than 50 percent of the two million poisoning incidents each year involve children younger than six years old.
In 2006, poison centers reported more than 77,000 calls made to poison centers with concerns about potential exposure to common household pesticides (potential exposures do not necessarily represent a poisoning).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) observes National Poison Prevention Week (March 16-22) each year to increase awareness of the danger to children of unintentional poisonings from pesticides and household products, and to encourage parents and caregivers to lock up products that could potentially harm children.
In observance of National Poison Prevention Week , EPA has launched a poison-prevention segment on Green Scene, EPA's new series of environmental videos, which can be seen on the agency's home page, www.epa.gov.
To find out more about poison prevention visit www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/poisonprevention.htm.
The National Poison Center hotline is 800-222-1222.
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