Lesser known poisons in household products
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Medical Toxicologist Cyrus Rangan, MD, shares advice for parents on a number of lesser known and potentially dangerous poisons for children that are found in household products
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When we think about poisons in our home, it's very easy to understand that medications, cleaning products, and other products like these can be poisonous to our children. But, there are certain other products that we bring into our households that we sometimes leave out in plain view that can be poisonous if they are used incorrectly. For example, hand sanitizer. That's something that we tend to leave out or use during the day for sterilization of our hands. But, it's important to know that these products often contain about 60%, alcohol which is more alcohol than is in most alcoholic drinks. And, if a child accidentally get this in to a swallow, for example, of one of these hand sanitizer products, that could actually lead to some severe poisoning, even requiring an emergency department to visit. So, even though, out of convenience, we like to keep products like hand sanitizer out of the open, it's important to realize that we have young children in the house. We should probably keep this out of reach, out of sight, out of mind when we are having children around these products in our homes. In addition, there are other products that we use, sometimes on an everyday basis, that maybe poisonous, that we don't have a - that we don't necessarily realize are poisonous. For example, the spray duster that we use to spray the dust off of our computer screens, in our computer keyboards. Although most of the contents of the product is just air, there are other products inside that are designed to be preservative and propellants for these canisters that can be poisonous if we breathe them in. So, we wanna make sure that, although we use these products on a daily basis and we have them out for convenience, that if a child is unsupervised, they may come in to contact with it and use it in a way that it's inappropriate. So, let's make sure that any of these products that we have in our home are, again, out of reach, our of sight and out of mind to prevent poisoning in the home.
Medical Toxicologist Cyrus Rangan, MD, shares advice for parents on a number of lesser known and potentially dangerous poisons for children that are found in household products
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Cyrus Rangan, MDMedical Toxicologist, Poison Control
Cyrus Rangan, MD, is a pediatrician and medical toxicologist. Cyrus serves as the Assistant Medical Director with the California Poison Control System and medical toxicology consultant for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Over 70% of the calls received at the center are able to stay at home and avoid a visit to the hospital, based on the over-the-phone support of the center. Cyrus is also the father of two boys, age seven and four, with whom he enjoys practicing Kung Fu.
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