The spokewoman for the Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center says if there are ever kids in your house, responsible Iowans need to be sure their homes are poison-proof.
Tammy Noble offers several tips on making our homes and children safer. Noble says: "Try to use child-resistant packaging. Those types of packaging have the lids that are hard to open. Remember that these packages are not child proof though. Kids can open those packages if they’re given enough time." She says another common-sense tip is to never store poisons next to food or drinks.
Noble says, "We get lots of calls where they grab the wrong container or they grab something that was in the medicine cabinet that they thought was their medicine and have an accidental exposure instead." Noble says poisons can look like food or drink, so teach children to ask an adult before eating or drinking anything. Noble says sometimes a kid or a pet will nibble on a plant, which may –or may– not be fatal.
She says to know the names of the plants in your house and yard. Learn if they’re toxic by calling the poison center with the name of the plants, or check on-line. If you’re not sure what the plant is called, take it to a plant nursery so they can identify it and can tell you whether it could be a hazard to pets or children. The Sioux City-based poison center handles some 40,000 calls a year, 75-percent of which involve a person exposed to a poison. There’s a wealth of poison prevention information at the center’s website, or by calling the hotline, 1-800-222-1222.