In the news

With almost one call every minute to poison control centers and enough kids to fill about four school buses a day¹ arriving to emergency rooms due to accidental medicine poisonings, it’s more important than ever for parents to store medicine safely.

A new report by Safe Kids Worldwide, “Safe Medicine Storage: A Look at the Disconnect Between Parent Knowledge and Behavior,” sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., reveals that while most parents know what they should do to protect kids from accidental medicine poisoning, that knowledge isn’t always turning into action. In a new nationwide survey of 2,000 parents, the clear majority of parents agree that it’s important to store all medicine out of sight and up high after every use, but less than half of the survey respondents reported doing so.

What Families Can Do to Protect Kids

• Store medicine up and away and out of sight and reach every time
• Keep medicine in its original child-resistant packaging
• Practice safe storage of medicine as soon as your first child is born
• Put the Poison Help number – 1-800-222-1222 – into your phone and post it visibly at home
• Instead of keeping your medicine handy, use safe reminder tools like cell phone alarms or medication schedules

For more medicine safety tips and to learn more about Safe Kids Worldwide, visit SafeKids.org