TOXIC EXPOSURES IN CHILDREN INVOLVING LEGALLY AND ILLEGALLY COMMERCIALIZED HOUSEHOLD SANITIZERS

OBJECTIVES: To analyze and to compare clinical repercussions of accidents involving legally and illegally commercialized household sanitizers in children under 7 years of age. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data from electronic database of a regional Poison Control Center during one year. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive non-parametric statistics and association tests. Results: The sample had 737 reported cases. Most of the accidents occurred with children under 3 years of age (median: 1 year of age; interquartile interval: 1-3 years of age), at home (92.9%), by ingestion (97.2%). Products involved were cleaning products with low toxicity and no caustic effects (38.9%); caustics (24.1%); hydrocarbons (19.3%); pesticides/rodenticides (16.6%), and other products (1.1%). Seventy accidents were due to exposures to illegal products, mainly caustics (n=47) and rodenticides (n=15). Among the 337 children presenting post-exposure clinical manifestations, the most frequent were vomiting (n=125), oral burns (n=74), cough (n=35), drooling (n=26), and abdominal pain (n=25). Clinical manifestations were significantly more frequent after illegal products exposure (55/70 versus 282/667, p<0.01). Nineteen children had to be hospitalized (caustics, n=17; illegal products, n=12; median time of hospitalization: 2 days), 22 were submitted to esophagogastroduodenoscopy (sodium hydroxide, n=14; illegal products, n=14); and 12 cases had endoscopic alterations (severe in 2). No deaths occurred. CONCLUSION: Toxic exposures owing to illegal household sanitizer products are associated with greater morbidity when compared with legal ones.