The journal Pediatrics
recently reported that “there were more than 8,200 calls to US poison centers
regarding exposures to liquid nicotine and e-cigarettes among children younger than
6 years of age from January 2012 through April 2017, averaging 129 calls each
month or more than 4 a day.” (here)
As I previously noted (here),
annual exposures (which were 1,548 according to the Pediatrics article) should be considered in appropriate
perspective.
While the journal article acknowledged that e-cigarette
exposures “decreased by about 20% from 2015 to 2016,” its senior author called for
additional regulation. If children’s
exposure to products should guide regulatory priorities, the following chart
from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (2016 report available here)
may be instructive.
| Non-Pharmaceutical Exposures Reported To Poison Control Centers in the U.S., 2016 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Category | Number Among Children Under 6 Years | Number Among All Ages | Deaths Per 100,000 Exposures* |
| Cosmetics, personal care products | 136,004 | 180,065 | 3 |
| Household cleaners | 111,445 | 179,828 | 13 |
| Foreign bodies | 65,864 | 90,667 | 1 |
| Pesticides | 33,458 | 77,573 | 22 |
| Plants | 27,565 | 45,150 | 24 |
| Arts, crafts, office supplies | 20,096 | 27,319 | 0 |
| Deodorizers | 17,398 | 21,266 | 14 |
| Essential oils (clove, etc.) | 13,264 | 18,997 | 0 |
| Tobacco | 11,358 | 13,319 | 0 |
| Cigarettes | 6,331 | 6,699 | -- |
| E-Cigarettes | 2,075 | 2,827 | -- |
| Chewing tobacco | 1,220 | 1,357 | -- |
| Other | 1,732 | 2,436 | -- |
| Foods, additives, spoilage | 10,839 | 33,909 | 9 |
| Alcohols | 9,562 | 22,289 | 117 |
| Chemicals | 9,328 | 33,910 | 80 |
| Gasoline, other hydrocarbons | 8,821 | 27,807 | 76 |
| Bites, venom | 6,708 | 46,989 | 15 |
| Paint, strippers | 6,601 | 12,238 | 0 |
| Batteries | 5,483 | 9,651 | 41 |
| Adhesives, glue | 4,692 | 9,622 | 0 |
| Fumes, vapors | 3,673 | 31,337 | 214 |
| Fertilizers | 2,759 | 4,590 | 80 |
| Other | 35,859 | 94,024 | 44 |
| All | 540,777 | 980,550 | 26 |
* All Ages
Of the half million exposures among children under 6 years
of age recorded by poison control centers in 2016, 45.8% involved cosmetics,
personal care products or household cleaners, while e-cigarettes accounted for
just 0.4%.
Looking at product-related deaths per 100,000 exposures,
rates were highest for fumes and vapors (which included carbon monoxide) and
for alcohols, but there were no deaths recorded for tobacco exposures,
including e-cigarettes.
Public health generally and children’s health in particular
may benefit from regulatory reform that is keyed to demonstrated risk exposure.
2 comments:
What they also tend to leave out of media reports is that if you read the CDC Logs up to 2014, you can see the calls were mostly inquiries such as [paraphrased from actual call] "I was in a packed auditorium that was really hot, and I saw a guy with a vape pen in his pocket. Later that night I started feeling sick. Was I poisoned from it?"
I have a copy of the old logs, and it wasn't filled with emergency poising calls -- rather, it was misconceptions and inquiries about whether most of the callers were poisoned due to proximity.
Thanks for exposing these facts.
After FDA unlawfully banned e-cigs in 2009 and held a press conference that lied about SE and NJOY vapor products and demonized the companies (in an attempt to influence the federal judges in the DC District who were adjudicating the lawsuit filed by SE and NJOY against FDA), the FDA issued a poison center alert encouraging parents and healthcare professionals to report any youth exposures with an e-cig.
Most of the calls to PCCs for youth exposures to e-cigs were cases involving one or two inhalations from an e-cig, and some calls reported that a youth simply touched an e-cig (which PCCs also classify as an "exposure").
Post a Comment