[Judy Pino] 
Hello, and welcome to Green 
Scene, EPA's series of 
environmental podcasts that 
you can take with you. 
I'm Judy Pino with the 
Office of Multimedia.
This is National Poison 
Prevention Week.
Every 13 seconds, U.S. Poison 
Centers receive a call about 
someone being exposed 
to a poison. 
Ninety percent of those calls 
concern poisonings that have 
occurred in the home, 
and over 50 percent 
of the victims are children, 
younger than six years old. 
So, what can you do 
to prevent this from 
happening in 
your home?  
To tell us more about this 
very important subject, 
we have Jim Gulliford, 
assistant administrator 
for the Office of Prevention, 
Pesticides and Toxic Substances.
Thanks, Jim, for 
coming today. 
[Jim Gulliford] 
Thanks, Judy.
[Judy Pino] 
So, why is EPA involved in 
National Poison Prevention Week?
[Jim Gulliford] 
Well, Poison Prevention Week, 
National Poison Prevention Week 
gives us one opportunity a year 
to have a national platform to 
speak to an issue that we feel 
is very important to our home 
owners and our parents 
every day of the year. 
It's how we can avoid 
unintentional poisonings 
in the home.
[Judy Pino] 
So, as we mentioned, 
every 13 seconds they 
receive a phone call.    
So, as we speak, someone is 
actually being exposed to 
a poison.
What are some common products 
that many households keep 
around that may be potentially 
dangerous to children if not 
properly stored 
or secured? 
[Jim Gulliford] 
There are a lot of products that 
are important to consumers and 
to parents to have in their 
homes, such as insecticides, 
such as anti-microbials, 
disinfectants, types of 
products that we use to keep 
our homes safe from pests.
However, if they're not used 
properly, and if they're 
allowed to be available 
for accidental exposures, 
we can have poisoning problems.
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, so let's talk about 
proper storage. 
[Jim Gulliford] 
That's our first and most 
important priority, 
is to keep these items out of 
the reach of children, again.
So we ask that they -- 
we recommend that parents 
store them high and lock 
the doors to these types 
of containers.  
We use products such as these 
types of door locks, which are 
available at hardware stores 
anywhere across the country. 
We use them commonly, again, 
to provide latches to protect 
our children 
from access.
[Judy Pino] 
Easy to use?
[Jim Gulliford] 
Very easy to use.
In fact, in January -- 
I have a son and daughter-in-law 
who have a young one-year-old, 
and we went through their house; 
we purchased these, actually in 
packages of 12, but by the time 
you get through all of the types 
of drawers and doors where you 
want to prevent access, 
you can put as many as 
a dozen of them 
in your home.
[Judy Pino] 
So one of many preventive 
measures? 
[Jim Gulliford] 
Yes.
[Judy Pino]  
The Poison Data Center reported 
thousands of calls made to 
Poison Centers with concerns 
about exposure to common 
household pesticides, 
many poisoning incidents 
reported from children in just 
the illegal pesticides.
So what are they, and how 
can we prevent the kids 
from getting them?
[Jim Gulliford] 
We're very concerned about 
access to illegal pesticides.
They may be sold on the street 
or in small stores, 
but they are products that 
aren't registered with 
the Environmental Protection 
Agency; products such as
mosquito coils, such as chalk 
for rodent and roach control. 
Those types of products, 
if they're not labeled 
as appropriate from the 
Environmental Protection Agency, 
one, they may be more toxic 
than people that are used to 
that are appropriate for use, 
but secondly, they may also 
not have the instructions that 
are very important to make 
sure that products are used 
safely and properly for their 
intended purpose. 
[Judy Pino]  
So we're looking for the 
registration from the EPA. 
[Jim Gulliford] 
Exactly.
[Judy Pino] 
How do most poisonings occur, 
and how can guardians, parents, 
and seniors, caregivers avoid 
these things from happening?
[Jim Gulliford] 
Well, even when we take special 
concerns to store our pesticides 
or these products properly, 
often when they're in use, 
it's not unlikely that children 
can have access to them.
If you're using a product, 
the phone rings, the timer 
goes off on the oven, you get 
up, you leave the product, 
children are so quick, they can 
get to these products and 
have access to them in a very 
unintentional way. 
[Judy Pino] 
So now we've been talking 
about prevention. 
What if something unfortunately 
does happen? 
What should, then,
people do?
[Jim Gulliford] 
All right, our first advice to 
any parent or caregiver is to 
stay calm.
It's important that you get 
the correct information and 
that can be done by accessing 
the National Poison Hotlines 
by dialing 
1-800-222-1222, 
and when that phone is answered, 
you'll have a professional that 
can give you immediate advice 
as to what you should do.
So give that professional 
the best and most accurate 
information you can, 
with respect to the product 
that may have been accidentally 
ingested, the amounts, 
but don't tell them things 
that you don't know.
Give them accurate information, 
and if you don't know the 
answer as to how much, 
tell them that. 
[Judy Pino] 
Now we should also mention 
that this phone number is 
also good to --
[Jim Gulliford] 
For preventative -- 
[Judy Pino] 
-- ask about preventative 
measures. 
[Jim Gulliford] 
Exactly, they can give you 
information on, again, 
how to protect yourself, 
how to protect your children 
from accidental 
poisonings.   
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, what is the EPA doing to 
prevent pesticide poisoning?
[Jim Gulliford] 
Well, we provide information 
through our Web sites as to 
the types of things that 
we can do, again, 
to protect our children.    
We're also doing rulemaking 
right now to provide better 
protections for rodenticides. 
We want to make sure that 
people have access to mouse- 
and rodent-control pesticides, 
but at the same time, 
that they be made safer 
in the access. 
So what we're developing is 
a rule that would require
childproof or child-protective 
types of devices, 
bait blocks that are solid 
rather than pellets so 
that the pesticides are still 
available to the rodents, 
but are less available 
to children. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, so we have been 
talking about children 
and family members.   
Pets, sometimes, they're 
considered our family members, 
and they're almost like 
kids also as well. 
What about 
our pets?  
What can we do to 
protect them?
[Jim Gulliford] 
It's equally important that we 
prevent the access of pets to 
these products, so the same type 
of recommendations for how to 
store products properly, 
how to display them properly, 
how to use them properly, 
apply to pets as well.
Follow the label, prevent 
access, and you're going 
to be able to protect 
your pets as well. 
[Judy Pino] 
Thanks, Jim.
It's important to know 
that these poisonings 
are preventable.
[Jim Gulliford] 
Thanks, Judy.
[Judy Pino] 
For more information, please 
contact the Poison Center 
toll-free, 24 hours a day, 
seven days a week at 
1-800-222-1222.
See you next time 
on Green Scene.