Abstract
IN the United States, about 1,200 deaths occur each year from accidental poisoning. Analysis of the 355 cases occurring among policy-holders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company during 1940–43 (Statist. Bull., 25, No. 2; 1944) reveals the following. More than a quarter of the victims were pre-school children, and among these the commonest poison was strychnine (20 cases), taken in the form of sugar-coated strychnine pills intended for adults, followed closely by oil of wintergreen (17 cases), taken by drinking the pleasant smelling liquid intended for external application. Among the adults the list was headed by overdose of sleeping drugs (72 cases); 49 took poison (commonest were lysol, sodium fluoride) in mistake for medicine; 41 drank methyl alcohol believing it to be a satisfactory substitute for ethyl, and 18 drank poison in mistake for an alcoholic beverage.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Accidental Poisoning in the United States. Nature 154, 50 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154050b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154050b0