I have worked with both adults and children in educating them against poisoning and what to do in the event of a poisoning. As part of my demonstration I have six glasses on a table and I ask them to tell me which ones are poison and which ones are not and most of the time they can't tell the difference. I have one each of Kool-aid, apple juice, and water and one each of anti-freeze, pine-sol, and chlorine bleach I put lids on them so they can't smell them and I sit them all on the table so they can see and I ask which ones are poison and it never fails to amaze both children and the adults when they can't tell which is which.

I do this because quite a few years ago I was working with Alzheimer's patients and one of them had almost died when she drank anti-freeze while visiting her daughters home because she thought it was juice. It was because of this I added poisoning and this demonstration as part of the first aid classes I teach. I was an EMT instructor prior to retiring due to a medical condition at age 35, but I do first aid classes for Cub Scouts, daycare providers, and any other group who requests them.

I think teaching poisoning prevention and first aid is just as important as teaching how to bandage cuts, and what you do after that happens is just as important as locking them up. It is imperative that you call a poison control center as soon as you realize what the product is that they consumed, do not induce vomiting because if something burned on the way in it will burn on the way out also, and bring the container with you to the hospital so they can see the ingredients and the label. A very good product to have handy is "Activated Charcoal", what happens is if you are told to give this product the person who swallowed the poison drinks it and it binds the poison in the stomach so that it is not absorbed into the bloodstream.

Medications are also very poisonous to adults as well as children if not taken as directed and activated charcoal works on these as well. In most cases of children taking medications they think they are candy because they are the same colors and size as many brands of candy so children will take them without telling adults because they don't want to get into trouble. Most adults that take medication and overdose unintentionally do so because they forget whether they took their medications earlier, or do not understand the directions on the bottle. In both cases you need to bring the bottle with you so the doctors at the hospital can help counteract the overdose.

Poisoning can be prevented and it doesn't take much effort to do so, but in case of it happening you should keep the poison control phone number with your emergency numbers because the best prevention is being prepared.

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