By Kirsty Ross
POISONING is the second highest cause of hospitalisation among children from newborn babies to four-year-olds in Victoria, according to new Monash University statistics.
The trend data from the university’s accident research centre has provided the grounding for a new State Government campaign, ‘Remove the risk. Put poisons away. Straight away’.
As a result, Hobsons Bay City Council’s maternal and child-health nurses are stepping up the fight to reduce childhood poisonings the area.
Mayor Leigh Hardinge said: “Council is working closely with the Department of Human Services to inform parents about the dangers of child poisonings in the home.
“Medicines, cleaning products, petrol and weed killers, bleaches and eucalyptus oil are the five most dangerous poisons. Simple things like putting them away in safe locations immediately after using them can save your child from a very nasty and potentially fatal experience.”
For more information, visit www.dhs.vic.gov.au/injury.
