Around two percent more consultations on poisoning carried out
Published: Monday, Jan 15th 2024, 09:40
Retour au fil d'actualité
Last year, the Tox Info Suisse Foundation provided a total of 41,261 individual consultations on suspected poisoning via the poisoning emergency number 145. This corresponds to an increase of 1.7 percent compared to 2022, as reported by the foundation on Monday.
In comparison with 2022, slightly fewer consultations on poisoning with medication were carried out in Switzerland. Nevertheless, these still accounted for more than a third of emergency calls in 2023 (35.8%) and thus most suspected cases of poisoning. In the previous year, this figure was 36.7%, the foundation reported.
In second place last year were poisonings with household products, which accounted for a further 22.9% of consultations. Consultations on all other possible causes of poisoning such as food, personal care products, mushrooms, poisonous animals or stimulants such as drugs and alcohol were all in the single-digit percentage range.
Fewer calls about suicide attempts
Around 40 percent of inquiries to the Tox Info Suisse Foundation concerned children of pre-school age, typically involving accidents, according to the report. Around five percent of all calls, on the other hand, concerned adolescents, whereby, according to the foundation, the main focus was on intentional poisoning. This mainly involved suicide attempts and, to a lesser extent, the misuse of substances.
However, inquiries about suicide attempts have decreased overall, the report continued. According to the report, seven percent fewer calls (-308 inquiries) were received about suicide attempts compared to 2022. However, Tox Info Suisse stated that the pre-pandemic level had not yet been reached.
Meanwhile, inquiries about iodine tablets were significantly more frequent in 2023 than in previous years. According to Tox Info Suisse, the number of calls about iodine tablets is increasing as part of the precautionary distribution to households within a 50 km radius of nuclear power plants, which takes place every 10 years.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic