The National Poisons Information Center (NVIC) at UMC Utrecht sees a clear corona effect in the reports that came in last year. For example, the number of reports of splash incidents with disinfectant and ingestion of hand alcohol by children increased sharply in corona year 2020, according to the annual overview of the NVIC.
The NVIC is the national source of information for general practitioners, medical specialists and other care providers who deal with patients with acute poisoning. They can contact the NVIC for information about the effects and treatment of poisonings in humans and animals.
In 2020, the NVIC received 47,235 telephone inquiries about poisonings in 34,093 people and 9,056 animals. The website poisoning.info was also used 139,347 times, where care providers themselves can consult toxicological information from the NVIC.
From March 2020, when the Netherlands had to deal with the corona pandemic and associated hygiene measures, the number of reports of people accidentally getting splashes of hand alcohol in their eyes and children who accidentally took a sip of hand alcohol increased. In 2020, the NVIC was consulted by telephone on 552 exposures of people to hand disinfectants, compared to an average of 107 reports in the previous five years.
Multivitaminization
A corona effect is also visible in other areas. For example, the number of reports about multivitamin preparations increased. Stories circulated on the internet that multivitamin tablets could prevent corona. Many people therefore brought them into their homes, which led to small children accidentally eating the – often colorful – tablets and capsules more often.
The NVIC was consulted by telephone 580 times last year about exposures of children, in particular, to multivitamin and mineral preparations. In the five previous years, this was an average of 450 times a year.
Chemicals at work
The number of reports of small-scale industrial accidents remained virtually the same, while most people worked from home in 2020 due to the corona measures. In 2020 there were 848 incidents, in 2019 859. According to the NVIC, the number of reports may increase further if everyone can be present at the workplace again.
The NVIC calls the exposures at work worrying, because they can lead to greater calamities. That is why an investigation is now underway into the circumstances in which the industrial accidents took place, in order to determine the cause of the increase.
The entire 2020 Annual Review of the NVIC can be found at the website from the center.
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