Calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to household cleaners and disinfectants have spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report.
The report authors found that, from January to March this year, poison control centers received 45,550 calls related to cleaner and disinfectant exposure. That’s up 20% compared with calls over the same period in 2019, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report cannot prove for certain that the rise is due to people’s cleaning efforts to prevent COVID-19, but it does show “a clear temporal association with increased use of these products,” the authors said.
Overall, calls for exposures to bleach, non-alcohol disinfectants and hand sanitizers made up the biggest percentage of the increase from 2019 to 2020, the report found.
The authors also highlighted two cases that were particularly illustrative of the types of calls poison control is receiving.
