EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CHILDREN POISONING : COMPARISON BETWEEN TELEPHONE INQUIRIES AND EMERGENCY ROOM VISITS

: We studied 674 telephone inquiries to the Poison Information Centre and 532 Emergency Room (ER) visits due to suspected poisonings in 1018 children below the age of 16 y and living at Trieste. The cases were prospectively recorded during 1985-1989. Age distribution, toxic substances and consequences were different in the 2 groups. Telephone inquiries concerned children below the age of 5 y more frequently, and most of the exposures were assessed as non-toxic. Among children admitted to the hospital ER, 22.2% were more than 10-y old, and of these 79.7% were confirmed poisonings. This study demonstrated the need to take account of both Poison Control Centre and ER data to get reliable information on the occurrence of poisonings in children.