The Holidays are here. Starting this afternoon traffic will pick-up, airports will start to clog and homes will get that last cleaning. Part of getting ready for the holidays is to make sure your home is ready for all your holiday guests. Food is properly prepared for the variety of dietary needs you will encounter. The beer frig and liquor cabinet and adequately stocked. And the house is safe for everyone.
But no matter how well we poison proof our homes some guests bring their own poisons. Cyanide as stuffing seasoning? Strychnine for the soup? or is it arsenic for the candied yams. No, none of those. It is big brother or crazy uncle that chews and spits into his diet coke can. So far this year the Illinois Poison Center has reported 24 exposures to chewing tobacco spit. The Missouri center another 32. The adults all know that is his spit can. But to a curious two year old it looks like diet coke. Nicotine that is contained in tobacco gets concentrated in what gets spit into the can. Nicotine frequently causes nausea and vomiting. More serious effects like an increase in heart rate, drowsiness and seizures have all happened to unsuspecting children
This holiday season keep your medications and cleaning products put away, your carbon monoxide detector working, cooking utensils clean and keep an eye out for a wayward spittoon.
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