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Poisonings never take a break, even during the holidays. Missouri Poison Center is always ready to help, every day of the year. One of the best pieces of advice we give is to program the poison help phone number into your mobile phone: 1-800-222-1222. Being prepared and calling right away is your best bet – you’ll be speaking with a poison specialist within seconds to get the help you need!

Hunting season is here in full force in Missouri. It takes a lot of work to get your equipment ready to take that perfect shot. But before you start, keep reading for special safety information about your hunting gear.

QUICK FACTS Tick bites are on the rise in Missouri. The best way to protect you and your family from tick-borne disease is knowledge and prevention. To remove a tick, use a thin-tipped tweezers – smothering or burning the tick is NOT recommended. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior …

You may have known certain fruit pits and seeds contain a form of cyanide, but could someone really have a toxicity from eating them? A recent news story about cherry pits has brought concern to the public. A man reportedly ate three cherry pits and was hospitalized for cyanide poisoning. He apparently cracked open the pit and ate the seed inside. While this is extremely rare and unlikely to occur from an exposure like this, cherry pits do contain a small amount of a toxic substance.

Have you seen the new trend in food and cosmetics for 2017? For decades, charcoal was the “go-to” antidote in the emergency department for poisonings. Recently, it has fallen out of favor as research studies show it may not work as well as we thought. But, charcoal is making a comeback as a trendy product for use as a detoxifier. Many people are now buying activated charcoal powder or capsules at their local health food store or online.

Wild mushroom hunting is a popular hobby. Mushroom identification is tricky. Toxic and nontoxic mushrooms can grow side by side, and many mushrooms that can make you sick look just like edible mushrooms. Our best advice is to NEVER pick and eat wild mushrooms unless they’ve been identified by an expert.

Poison centers across the country have noted a significant increase in calls about essential oils. Because the oils are derived from natural sources, it leads users to think they are safe, but natural does not always equal safe.

You cannot believe your eyes! You find your tween playing with a friend and neither of them has a phone or electronic device in their hands. They are actually screen-less, yet they are having FUN, up to their elbows in gooey slime.

Novel forms of vaping have hit YouTube and internet forums. “Dripping” is one such method. With traditional vaping, the “juice” passes through a filter where some of it gets trapped before each inhalation. With dripping, the filter is bypassed and a few drops of the “juice” are dripped directly onto the heated coils or atomizer of the device which produces a thicker vapor cloud.

How does your body know when it’s time to sleep? Your brain makes its own sleep hormone when darkness falls, and stops making it in the morning when the light returns. This hormone is called melatonin and has been sold as a dietary supplement to promote natural sleep cycles for …

With names like K2,Spice, Bliss, and Cloud Nine, and hundreds of others, the drugs often called “synthetic marijuana”, are – in reality – very different from marijuana.  They contain powerful chemicals called cannabimimetics and can cause dangerous health effects.  The drugs are made specifically to be abused. A recent synthetic …

A recent study involving three pediatric clinics tried to determine the best dosing tool for giving liquid medication to children.  Each participating adult received a medication cup and a syringe.  They were then asked to measure out liquid medications in a variety of doses.   The accuracy results were surprising! …