CDC reports a rise in poison cases from chemical exposure to disinfectants
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Poison Control Centers used the National Poison Data System (NPDS) to compare the number of reported exposures in January-March 2020 to the exposures reported for the same period in 2019 and 2018.
There was a total of 45,550 exposure calls related to cleaners and disinfectants into poison centers from January to March 2020 - 28,158 calls associated with cleaners and 17,392 calls associated with disinfectants. These numbers demonstrate a 20.4% and 16.4% increase when compared to January-March 2019.
The report also noted that inhalation represented the largest percentage increase in exposure method, with an increase of 35.3% for all cleaners and 108.8% for all disinfectants.
This NPDS data has confirmed a clear temporal association between the rise in chemical exposures and COVID-19 cleaning efforts.
Read the full CDC report here.
