- In general, if a child becomes in contact with any poisonous substance, give us a call at Poison Control. However, if the child is not breathing or is having a seizure or is unresponsive, then these are reasons to bypass Poison Control and call 911 for the immediate medical emergency attention that the child will need.

- There are substances that if ingested can be life threatening. The Poison Center can give some quick advice. For instance should the child drink milk, should the child not drink anything. Should there be any counteracting substances that can be given in the home right away or not? All this really means is that the Poison Control, depending on the substance or material or product ingested, can give quick and simple advice while the parent is at home. In certain instances the child may not need to come to the emergency department. The parent shouldn't just automatically drive their child in because it may not be necessary.

- There are about 80,000 chemicals used in America in manufacturing, in household use. About 3,000 of them have been tested for safety. In other words there are about 77,000 chemicals in our clothes, in our toys, in our food, in agriculture, in manufacturing, that have not been tested for safety in children. What I ask parents to do is to avoid pesticides. If you don't like spiders, step on them. Take them outside, it's more humane. Buy wooden toys instead of plastic toys whenever you can. When you are purchasing cleaning products, turn them around. If you look at some of the best products, the best dish soaps, if you turn them around and look at the label it said if ingested drink a glass of water. You could have figured that out. You can buy other cleaning products that say if ingested call Poison Control immediately. You don't want those in your house. You want to minimize a child's exposure to pesticides, to cleaning products that could be toxic, to plastics, to dry cleaning solutions that could be toxic. There are a lot of things going wrong right now with children's brains. Everything from autism to ADD. The strong suspicion is that it may have to do with toxic chemicals in our environment. Avoid them as best you can.