At the California Poison Control System in San Francisco, a call has just come in from a mother whose toddler accidentally drank a stain remover called “Grandma’s Secret.” “I’m not sure how much she had and whether I should take her to the hospital,” the mom says. “She’s acting like her normal self, but she has her ‘disgusted face’ on.
” “Got it,” says the operator. “So, most stain removers aren’t a problem — they’re detergent-based. With ingestion, mostly what you’ll see are mild effects, like an upset stomach or brief gagging or vomiting.
Typically, the remedy is you wash out their mouth, give them some water or juice, and they’ll be absolutely fine.” Just like that, crisis averted. It’s all in a day’s work for the poison center’s operators, the specially trained physicians, pharmacists and nurses at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center .
Somebody comes into contact with something they shouldn’t, and a cry for help comes into the center’s 24/7 hotline (1-800-222-1222). The San Francisco office is one of four in California, with others in Sacramento, San Diego and the Fresno/Madera area. Together, they handle about 235,500 cases per year — roughly 650 a day or one every two minutes — involving everything from drug overdoses to rattlesnake bites, toxic plants and weirder things.
Californians poison themselves in ways that generally follow nationwide trends. In 2022, most poisoning cases in America.