36,500 inquiries to the Poison Information Center

Giftnotruf Göttingen answers questions about poisoning in children and adults

07/11/2014

The Poison Information Center North (GIZ) at the University Medical Center Göttingen presented its annual report for 2013. Accordingly, the GIZ experts processed 36,500 inquiries from home and abroad. 54% of the consultations were citizens and 46% were medical professionals. Around a third of the inquiries concerned poisoning of children.

The main task of the Poison Information Center North is advice in the acute case of poisoning
„The number of inquiries in excess of 36,000 shows how necessary professional advice and emergency service are. The response also shows how well GIZ is known and accepted by the general public and doctors, "emphasizes Dr. Herbert Desel, head of GIZ North.The GIZ annual report identifies the causes of poisoning, the severity of poisoning and the age groups It has been shown that everyday things are often sources of danger for children, such as chemical products (eg detergents), medicines and plants, and in adults, poisoning with medicinal products predominates.

„The main task of the GIZ-Nord of the states Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein is the consultation in the acute poisoning case“, inform the poison experts in a message. Her expertise is also in demand internationally. GIZ also answered inquiries from Tanzania and China last year. And: „In several projects funded by the European Commission, the Göttingen poison emergency addresses the danger posed by the spread of chemicals with a potentially criminal or terrorist background, "explains Priv.-Doz Dr. Andreas Schaper, Deputy Head of GIZ North.

In addition, the experts participated in 42 scientific publications and received numerous invitations to international conferences. „GIZ-Nord staff members have reported 71 times in clinics and at scientific conferences on topics such as smoke poisoning, drug emergencies, intoxications with toadstools and household chemicals, toxicological laboratory analysis and the handling of chemical warfare agents“, supplements Dr. Martin Ebbecke, Deputy Head of GIZ North. (Ag)