Domestic poisoning in the pediatric age group

Abstract

Poisoning in children is a public health issue worldwide, being a "family disease", an avoidable pathology. Thus, it is the major responsibility of the family to prevent them. Young children, due to their natural curiosity, present a major risk of domestic poisoning. In the case of domestic poisoning in children about half occur in children under 6 years of age, most of them occur in the age range 1 - 4 years. Morbidity and mortality have a higher incidence in childhood. Most of the times domestic poisoning in the case of children is accidental, representing about 85%, but there are also cases of voluntary poisoning. The forensic medicine network has the task of identifying such cases, carrying out forensic expertise and forensic necropsies in the case of deaths, reporting monthly / yearly indicators on the number of deaths per year at the county / national level as well as a series of variables (age and sex groups, environment of origin, cause of poisoning and class of chemical substance), which allow dynamic analysis of time and area tendencies of various population groups, including vulnerable groups. Monitoring such cases allows the establishment of an alert system with the possibility of immediate intervention by the authorities. Within risk assessments, the number of cases of poisoning with a particular substance or class of substances is a fundamental basis for decision making and risk management.