87 SRES 625 ATS: Recognizing the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Poison Prevention Week” and encouraging communities across the United States to raise awareness of the dangers of poisoning and promote poison prevention.
U.S. Senate
2024-03-23
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III
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 625
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 23 (legislative day, March 22), 2024
Mr. Brown (for himself, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, and Mr. Blumenthal) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Poison Prevention Week” and encouraging communities across the United States to raise awareness of the dangers of poisoning and promote poison prevention.
Whereas the designation of National Poison Prevention Week was first authorized by Congress and President Kennedy in 1961, in Public Law 87–319 (75 Stat. 681);
Whereas National Poison Prevention Week occurs during the third full week of March each year;
Whereas, in 2022, poison centers responded to more than 2,000,000 human exposure cases and information requests, including—
(1)
opioid and fentanyl misuse;
(2)
suicide attempts, including those by adolescents and teens; and
(3)
accidental edible cannabis ingestion;
Whereas poison centers are on the front lines assisting throughout the United States with emergency disasters in our communities, including the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment;
Whereas poison control centers responded to COVID–19 related surges by conducting poison safety and poisoning prevention outreach in a virtual format during the COVID–19 pandemic and handled increases in cases relating to hand sanitizer and household cleaning products;
Whereas America’s Poison Centers works with the 55 poison control centers in the United States to track—
(1)
commonly used household and workplace products that can cause poisoning; and
(2)
poisonings and the sources of those poisonings;
Whereas the National Poison Data System contains over 466,000 products, ranging from viral and bacterial agents to commercial chemical and drug products;
Whereas local poison control centers save the people in medical costs;
Whereas America’s Poison Centers and poison control centers partner with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and State, local, Tribal, and territorial health departments to monitor occurrences of environmental, biological, and emerging threats in communities across the United States, including food poisoning, botulism, and vaping-associated lung injury;
Whereas, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2020, an estimated 61,500 children under the age of 5 were treated in emergency rooms due to unintended poisonings;
Whereas, in 2021, children younger than 6 years of age constituted 41 percent of all poison exposures;
Whereas, from 2012 to 2022, the number of adolescents 10 to 19 years of age seen for a suicide attempt has nearly doubled and that has disproportionately affected female adolescents;
Whereas, in 2022, more than 90,000 children 19 years of age and younger were treated in an emergency room due to unintended pediatric poisoning and more than 90 percent of those incidents occurred in the home, most often with acetaminophen, edible cannabis, melatonin, ibuprofen, laundry packets, bleach, diphenhydramine, blood pressure medications, or sedatives or anti-anxiety medication;
Whereas an analysis of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System shows—
(1)
children experienced an increased incidence of ingestion of dangerous foreign bodies like button batteries and high-powered magnets during the COVID–19 pandemic; and
(2)
evidence that parents and caregivers sought care for foreign body ingestions either because they knew the relative danger of the object ingested or because they sought advice from available resources like the poison control centers;
Whereas 107,622 deaths due to drug overdose were reported in the United States in 2021, and the majority of those cases, approximately 75 percent, involved an opioid, primarily synthetic opioids like fentanyl;
Whereas, in 2021, the most common substances that individuals called the poison helpline about were prescription and non-prescription pain relievers, household cleaning substances, cosmetics and personal care products, and antidepressants;
Whereas pain medications lead the list of the most common substances implicated in adult poison exposures and are the single most frequent cause of fatalities reported to America’s Poison Centers;
Whereas poison control centers issue guidance and provide support to individuals, including individuals who experience medication and dosing errors;
Whereas more than 40 percent of calls to the poison helpline are from individuals 20 years of age or older, and a common reason for those calls is therapeutic errors, including questions regarding drug interactions, incorrect dosing route, timing of doses, and double doses;
Whereas active, curious children will often investigate and sometimes ingest things they find, and every day over 300 children between the ages of 0 to 19 are treated for accidental poisoning in the United States;
Whereas America’s Poison Centers engages in community outreach by educating the public on poison safety and poisoning prevention and provides educational resources, materials, and guidelines to educate the public on poisoning prevention;
Whereas individuals can reach a poison control center from anywhere in the United States by calling the poison help line at 1–800–222–1222 or accessing PoisonHelp.org;
Whereas, despite regulations of the Consumer Product Safety Commission requiring that a child-resistant package be designed or constructed to be significantly difficult for children under 5 years of age to open or obtain a harmful amount of the contents, children can still open child-resistant packages within a reasonable time; and
Whereas, each year during National Poison Prevention Week, the Federal Government assesses the progress made by the Federal Government in saving lives and reaffirms the national commitment of the Federal Government to preventing injuries and deaths from poisoning: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)
recognizes the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Poison Prevention Week”;
(2)
expresses gratitude for the people who operate or support poison control centers in their local communities;
(3)
expresses gratitude for frontline workers who supported poison prevention during the COVID–19 pandemic;
(4)
supports efforts and resources to provide poison prevention guidance or emergency assistance in response to poisonings; and
(5)
encourages—
(A)
the people of the United States to educate their communities and families about poison safety and poisoning prevention; and
(B)
health care providers to practice and promote poison safety and poisoning prevention.