Who we help - Young people and children
Many suspected accidental exposures occur in children; managing them appropriately can be challenging.
NPIS receives over 25,000 telephone enquiries a year relating to young people, under the age of 19 years. More than a third of the calls concern children under 10; the great majority of these (89%) are children under five. Enquiries about young people aged 10-19 years account for a further 12% of cases.
This pattern reflects the incidence of accidental childhood poisoning in the general population.
The agents most often enquired about overall (0-19 years) are paracetamol and ibuprofen. In children under nine years, household products are the most common cause of poisoning. In the 10-19 age group, all the agents most frequently enquired about are drugs and alcohol.
The vast majority of exposures in children under nine (92%) are accidental, whereas in the 10-19 age group, just over half are intentional ingestions.
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