Any substance consumed in excess can result in poisoning.
Poisoning is a significant factor in both unintentional and intentional injury-related deaths, as well as in injury hospitalizations, in BC.2 In 2021/22, unintentional poisoning ranked as the second highest cause of injury hospitalizations for children aged 4 years and younger in BC. Unintentional poisoning is one of the top five causes of injury hospitalizations among 5 to 84-year-olds.3 In 2020, over a third of all cases reported to poison centres across Canada involved children aged 5 years and younger.4
Substances that result in a poisoning, and the populations at risk of poisoning, vary greatly by intent and lethality. Alcohol, drugs, or medicinal agents are the main substances that result in over 90% of unintentional poisoning deaths and 85% of poisoning hospitalizations.
Medication (including prescribed and over-the-counter) is the leading cause of poisoning in children. Other products that can be poisonous to children include:
Both unintentional and intentional poisonings are common injuries among Canadian teenagers and adults. Common substances involved include:
Unintentional poisoning among older adults typically involves:
Intentional poisoning may also occur, commonly involving:
Using a large linked administrative dataset from PopDataBC, we are looking to understand the pathway and risk factors between an injury and an illicit drug overdose event. Specifically, this project aims to determine whether opioid prescription, opioid agonist therapy, whether the injury was work-related, and the profession affected the risk of overdose. Read more on the PopDataBC website.
The Substance Use Project aims to capture all intentional and unintentional pediatric poisonings observed in the emergency department at BC Children’s Hospital. Topics covered include alcohol and cannabis-related poisonings in 2016-2018; alcohol and illicit drug-related poisonings in 2019; and trends in pediatric poisonings during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Current evidence suggests the following best practices to prevent poisoning-related events or reduce their effects:
1. Yanchar, N.L., Warda, L.J., Fuselli, P., Canadian Paediatric Society, Injury Prevention Committee. (2012). Position Statement: Child and youth injury prevention: A public health approach. Available from: https://www.cps.ca/documents/position/child-and-youth-injury-prevention
2. BC Vital Statistics, Ministry of Health. Data accessed from Chronic Disease and Injury Data Mart, BCCDC (as of July 27th, 2023). 2017-2021
3. Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), Ministry of Health
4. Parachute. Poison Prevention Policy. Available from: https://parachute.ca/en/professional-resource/policy/poison-prevention/#:~:text=Medication%20is%20the%20leading%20cause,antifreeze
5. Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2014). Intentional Self-Harm Among Youth in Canada. Available from: https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/info_child_harm_en.pdf
6. Baldwin, N. et al. (2018). Fentanyl and heroin contained in seized illicit drugs and overdose-related deaths in British Columbia, Canada: An observational analysis. Drug Alcohol Depend. 185, 322–327.
7. HealthLinkBC. (2018). Poisoning. Available from: https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/poins#tw9579
8. Government of Canada. (2019). Cannabis in Canada: Get the facts. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/health/campaigns/cannabis.html