Southeastern Utah Health Department is thrilled to share information about National Poison Prevention Week that is set to take place March 21 through March 27. Amanda McIntosh was able to come into Castle Country Radio to discuss all the details.

“The theme for this year is Prepare. Prevent. Protect. So we’re going around trying to educate people in the community about poison control and things you may not consider to be poisonous or you would even think to be on your radar for poison right. So first and foremost let’s talk about the Poison Control phone number, it’s nationwide, it’s available 24/7 – that phone number being 1-800-222-1222,” stated McIntosh. The Southeastern Utah Health Department has stickers and magnets with this phone number listed on if you are in need of these items for your home or office.

There are two categories of poisons, household and outdoor are the main ones. “So with our household poisons we’re looking at batteries in toys, especially with our youth and those tiny little watch button, button batteries is what they’re called. It’s estimated that over 3,000 kids a year swallow those button batteries. So something as putting our batteries up high or making sure the clasps on our remote controls are done tightly so its harder for our kids to get those batteries,” explained McIntosh. Just being mindful that those batteries are very appealing to little ones. Importantly teach your family to never touch or put anything in their mouths unless they know what it is.

“We move to the outdoor poisons and those are things you know as we’re camping and hiking and scouting for animals and things that like. It’s the animals and insects that are native to Utah such as the Black Widow Spider or the Hobo Spider – not the Brown Recluse because that’s not native to Utah but the Hobo is and they have very similar reactive affects to our bodies,” stated McIntosh. So folks should be very cautious when outdoors around animals, insects and plants.