Question
Why are younger children at higher risk for poison exposure than adults?
Answer
Young children are at higher risk than older children or adults. If you look at all of the poison exposures that are reported each year, almost half of them are to children under age six. Infants and toddlers are at the highest risk. One reason is that children explore by touch and taste. If they see it, they want to pick it up and put it in their mouth to see what it is. Their bodies are also developing, so they have a higher metabolism. If you look at how little their body is and how much they eat or drink, they are actually eating and drinking more and breathing in more air in proportion to their body size than an adult does. With this and their faster metabolic rates, their bodies are less capable of handling chemicals to which they're exposed.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Avoiding Exposure to Hazardous Materials in ECE Settings, in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association, by Charlotte Hendricks, PhD.
