E-cigs' liquid nicotine causing poisonings
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:11 pm
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/03/health/ec ... ?hpt=hp_t3(CNN) -- As electronic cigarettes increase in popularity, calls to the nation's poison control centers about exposure to the liquid nicotine used in many of the devices have surged, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.......
........51% of those calls involved children 5 and under........
......Nicotine is a drug, and in its concentrated liquid form, poison experts warn it is also significantly toxic, even in small doses. E-cigarettes, which are not required to be childproof, feature flavors like spearmint, banana and bubble gum, making them appealing to kids.
"What's attractive to kids: It's the smell. It's the scent. It's the color," said Gaylord Lopez, director of the Georgia Poison Center. "A kid's not going to know the difference between a poison and something they can drink."
An Oklahoma mother found that out the hard way when her 4-year-old son got his hands on the liquid nicotine used to refill her e-cigarettes.
"We hear a little noise, come in and he has taken the lid off of all of them and has this liquid everywhere. He's got it all over him. He's been eating it.....