Objective: In this paper, we describe trends in tobacco-related poison exposure calls (calls) involving young children in the US.
Methods: Data were from the National Poison Data System between January 1, 2001 and October 31, 2016. We analyzed data on calls involving children younger than 5 years old. We describe trends in calls over time and call frequency by age, tobacco product type, level of care, and other characteristics of calls.
Results: During 2001-2016, there were 123,876 calls involving young children. During the study period, calls increased for most product types; e-cigarette-related calls increased from 7 in 2010 to 2558 in 2015. In calls with information on level of care (92.2%), 278 children were admitted to an intensive care unit, 497 were admitted to a hospital noncritical care unit, and 19,834 were treated and released.
Conclusions: Tobacco-related poison events commonly occur in the US and can have serious health consequences. More than 123,000 events among young children were reported during 2001-2016, but this likely represents a small portion of actual tobacco-related poison events due to underreporting. It is critical to continue to monitor tobacco-related poison events and develop strategies to prevent tobacco-related harm.
Keywords: children; cigar; cigarette; hookah; poison; smokeless; tobacco.