The Up and Away campaign, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is reminding parents to keep their medicines up and away and out of sight, especially during the Halloween season. This year, families are expected to spend more on Halloween candy than ever before, making this year even more critical for parents to be on alert and aware that their children may mistake medicines for candy.
“Halloween is a fun time of year for families, but as children look for treats, it’s easy to confuse medicines with candies—turning a fun time into a risky situation,” said Dan Budnitz, Director of the Medication Safety Program at CDC and manager of its PROTECT Initiative. “It is critical for parents to practice safe storage and keep all medicines up and away and out of sight of young children.”
Every year, about 60,000 young children end up in the emergency room after getting into medicines left within their reach. As part of the ongoing campaign to prevent accidental unsupervised ingestions of medicine, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) Educational Foundation created this printable infographic and this video for parents to illustrate the visual similarities between some medicines and favorite candies and the confusion that can ensue for children.
The CDC and Up and Away urge parents to be prepared by saving the Poison Help number in their phones—1-800-222-1222—or texting “POISON” to 797979 to save the information automatically. Additional resources on safe medicine storage are available at UpandAway.org.
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