Medications Which Can Kill A Toddler With One Tablet Or Teaspoonful

Published

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

My pet peeve is that a cigarette butt (only one mind you) can also kill an infant. Saw this while I worked in the ER. Very tragic but very stupid parents.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you. I'm sending this link to my daughter.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My pet peeve is that a cigarette butt (only one mind you) can also kill an infant. Saw this while I worked in the ER. Very tragic but very stupid parents.

this info is invaluable.

a cigarette butt ingested and killed a baby?

(i'm thinking s/he must have been a toddler, or old enough to put things in the mouth).

incredible...

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My pet peeve is that a cigarette butt (only one mind you) can also kill an infant. Saw this while I worked in the ER. Very tragic but very stupid parents.

I would love to see a research article or case study on this. I guess I need to know the definition of infant. I would not expect 1 cigarette butt to contain enough nicotine to kill a child. Perhaps a newborn BUT a newborn would not be able to put this in their mouth. If I had an older 5-6 months + age child that "died" because of ingestion of 1 cigarette butt I would be EXTREMELY skeptical and would be calling a toxicologist.

Most of the nicotine is burned and the remaining nicotine in the butt would not be asborbed well. Now if we are talking more than 1 butt sure, but a child dying from 1 cigarette butt, that would not be typical.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This sadly is very true. I am a competitor in collegiate forensics (speech an debate) and my persuasion this year deals with the fact that cigarette butts are the most littered substance worldwide. One butt contains, on average, 20 milligrams of nicotine (a natural insecticide) which is enough, if ingested, can kill an young child. I've only recently begun to research this, so pardon me for not knowing exact specifics of age and weight here. Also, alarmingly, researchers are estimating that it may only take 50 milligrams of nicotine to kill an adult. Hopefully, if enough people spread the word, a proper disposal system for cigarette butts can be devised and implemented, because--no matter how much we may wish--cigarette smoking won't be going away anytime soon.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER; HBOT- lots others.

There has been a lot of issues lately where i am at, well, like the surrounding areas 2-3 hrs away included that have had major issues lately with this crud! Stupid younger couples, that are kids themselves having babies- doing drugs (illegal or prescription) and leaving them out. I am so sick of hearing about this, and i so want to just talk to these ppl and find out WHAT THEIR PROBLEMS ARE!!!!!!

-H-RN

Btw, thanks for the list!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Vascular Surgery.

Here's an older CDC link:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046181.htm

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion