Prevention

The most common form of poisoning in the UK is from medicine.

To reduce the risk of accidental poisoning by medicine:

Keeping children safe

Children under 5 years of age have a particularly high risk of poisoning. To reduce the risk for your children:

If you have young children, be extra careful when you have guests to stay or when you go to visit other people. If your friends and relatives do not have children, they may not keep certain items out of reach and their home is unlikely to be childproof.

Keep an eye on your children at all times and ask guests to keep items such as alcohol and cigarettes out of their reach.

Read more about baby and toddler safety and preventing accidents to children in the home.

Further information

For more information about preventing specific types of poisoning see:

Page last reviewed: 10 September 2021
Next review due: 10 September 2024