insecticides have positive economic and health ... The authors have stated they have no conflict of interest. .... calls) occurred in the one-year-old age group.
Unintentional insecticide poisoning by age: an analysis of Queensland Poisons Information Centre calls Karin English,1,2 Paul Jagals,3 Robert S. Ware,2,3 Carol Wylie,4 Peter D. Sly1,2
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nsecticides are chemicals that are widely used in both domestic and commercial settings for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating unwanted pests.1 While agricultural and public health applications of insecticides have positive economic and health benefits, there are also adverse effects on the environment and health. Early childhood is a period of pronounced vulnerability to insecticides, as young children are not only at increased risk of insecticide exposure, due to their unique behaviours and physiology, but are also more sensitive to the adverse health effects of insecticides.2,3 Acute exposure to insecticides may result in local dermal irritation following skin contact, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, bronchospasm, dyspnoea, coughing, headaches, miosis, seizures, muscle twitching, paralysis and, in severe cases, death or long-term adverse health effects, although no studies in Australia have specifically investigated the association of young children’s acute insecticide exposure and health outcomes.4 Rates of acute poisoning events in young children can only be inferred by hospital admission data and calls to poison information centres, as there is no comprehensive poisoning monitoring system in Australia. Over a one-year period from mid2009 there were 26 hospitalisations of children aged 0-4 as a result of acute organophosphate and carbamate poisoning in Australia (other specific insecticide poisonings were not reported).5 In 2014, the 6th most commonly cited poison in calls to Queensland Poisons Information Centre (QPIC) was pyrethrins/
Abstract Objective: Data from the Queensland Poisons Information Centre (QPIC) was assessed to determine mechanisms of acute insecticide poisoning in young children (
