U.S. poison centers answered more than 4.3 million calls in 2008, including 2.5 million mission calls about human exposures to poison, according to Jessica Wehrman, communications manager and spokesperson for the AAPCC.

‘‘About 13 percent of all poison exposure calls the center received in 2008 were related to analgesics or painkillers,” said Wehrman. ‘‘Cosmetic and personal care items accounted for nine percent, with household cleaners at 8.6 percent. The largest victim percentage was children under the age of three who accounted for nearly 39 percent.”

‘‘Maintaining poison control services is important because the Poison Center prevents injuries and deaths from poisoning,” said Dr. Cathleen Clancy, associate medical director of the National Capital Poison Center and Emergency Medicine physician at NNMC. ‘‘A phone call to the Poison Center is easy and free, so parents and patients should seek assistance early, rather than delaying medical evaluation until symptoms appear. That prompt response decreases poisoning injuries and deaths.”

Poison centers eliminate unnecessary emergency department visits and ambulance runs and save the region more than $18 million in unnecessary health care costs each year, Clancy said. Poison centers are as cost effective as childhood immunizations.

According to Wehrman, the National Poison Data System (NPDS), who collects the data for AAPCC, tracks every call made to a U.S. poison center in near real-time and serves as a national resource to collect and monitor U.S. poison exposure.

‘‘This is one of the few real-time disease reporting systems in existence anywhere,” said Dr. Alvin Bronstein, medical director at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center and the lead author of the report. ‘‘This data base is a tremendous scientific tool that’s in operation in poison centers around the country every day.”

‘‘For just the months of January and February, Bethesda’ ER saw nine patients with poison incidents,” said Jim Green, administrator for the emergency medicine department at NNMC.

Dr. Christopher Lang, staff emergency room physician at NNMC, said the main priorities when it comes to poison control are safety and prevention.

‘‘In the case of children, parents should limit items that they can get their hands on and always make sure that cabinets containing potentially harmful items are locked,” said Lang. ‘‘Adults should be careful to check labels for ingredients and correct dosage of medications to avoid accidental overdoses.”

‘‘People should be careful of over the counter medication ‘double-dosing’ — taking two medications that contain the same ingredients. This is potentially dangerous,” he said.

Lang said, acetaminophen, is an example of a medication where innocent double-dipping can occur. Many [popular prescription pain medications] and over the counter remedies contain acetaminophen. People can unknowingly be taking more than the recommended dose of acetaminophen by taking two or more medications that contain it.

The maximum recommended dose of acetaminophen has been lowered because it has been found to be bad for the liver.

‘‘We see people in the Emergency Room all the time who have overdosed on acetaminophen,” said Lang.

‘‘Poisoning can occur at anytime and to anyone,” said Jim Hirt, executive director of the AAPCC. ‘‘AAPCC and its member poison centers work 24⁄7 to help those who have been exposed to a poison or just to answer the public’s questions regarding a potential poisoning

For questions about poison or poison prevention, call your local poison control center a 1-800-222-1222.