Rosaura de Farias Presgrave

A profile of unintentional poisoning caused by household cleaning products, disinfectants and pesticides

Intoxicacoes nao-intencionais ocorrem principalmente na infância. No Brasil, os produtos de limpeza domestica sao as principais causas desses eventos. Para este estudo foram analisados 2.810 casos registrados nos dois centros de controle de intoxicacao do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, no periodo de janeiro de 2000 a dezembro 2002. O grupo mais vulneravel foi o de criancas de ate cinco anos de idade. Meninos de ate dez anos foram mais intoxicados do que meninas. A partir dessa faixa etaria, a distribuicao foi invertida. Os centros de controle de intoxicacao foram chamados principalmente por servicos de saude no periodo de ate duas horas apos o envenenamento. As vias de exposicao mais frequentes foram ingestao (90,4%), inalacao (4,3%), dermica (2,4%) e ocular (2%). Os produtos envolvidos foram alvejantes, derivados de petroleo, raticidas e pesticidas. As principais causas foram: produto ao alcance de criancas, estocagem em garrafas de refrigerantes, uso de alimentos com raticidas, uso incorreto do produto, e utensilios de cozinha com produtos de limpeza. O desfecho mais frequente foi cura apesar do grande numero de casos perdidos durante o seguimento. Sao necessarios programas educacionais a fim de evitar esses eventos.Unintentional poisoning occurred mainly among children. The leading cause of such poisoning in Brazil, among consumer products was household cleaning products. For this study 2810 calls made to two poison control centers in the State of Rio de Janeiro between January 2000 and December 2002 were analyzed. Children under five were the most vulnerable group. More boys under 10 suffered accidental poisoning than girls, although above this age, the distribution was inverted. The calls received by poison control centers were mainly from health services within the first two hours following poisoning. The most frequent exposure routes were ingestion (90.4%), followed by inhalation (4.3%), skin and eye contact (2.4% and 2% respectively). The products involved were bleach, petroleum derivates, rodenticides and pesticides. The main causes were products within the childrens reach, storage in soft drink bottles, food mixed with rodenticides, incorrect product use, and kitchen utensils used for measured cleaning products. The most common outcome was that the patient was cured, although a lot of cases were lost to follow-up. Education programs are necessary in order to avoid these poisonings.

Análise dos dados dos Centros de Controle de Intoxicação do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, como subsídio às ações de saúde pública

Health information systems should be sources of reliable and valid data that can be used for surveillance to reduce morbidity and mortality. Unintentional poisoning is highly relevant to public health, since it is the most frequent cause of emergency pediatric care. Information on such events is recorded in Poison Control Centers (PCCs). The current study analyzed the records on unintentional poisoning with household cleaning products in two PCCs in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2000-2002. The variables analyzed were gender, age, cause of the accident, exposure route, toxic agent, and outcome. In the 2,810 records studied, boys four years and younger were the most vulnerable group and oral ingestion was the most common exposure route. However, analysis of the data on the toxic agent, cause, and outcome showed that the data currently recorded in the PCCs are inconsistent. It is necessary to review the definitions used by the PCCs in order for the resulting data to effectively support public health measures and health surveillance policies.

Determination of eye irritation potential of low-irritant products: comparison of in vitro results with the in vivo draize rabbit test

In an attempt to build the evaluation strategies to assess the human eye irritation, a reassessment of some in vitro tests is necessary, particularly concerning the non-irritants, mild and moderate irritants. Thus, the correlations between results obtained from the Draize test with the in vitro methods HET-CAM (Hens Egg Test-Chorion Allantonic Membrane) and RBC haemolysis assay to assess the ocular irritancy potential of 20 eye drops were examined. Parameters such as accuracy (%) and specificity (%) were determined. All results were correlated with RBC correctly with the results obtained in the Draize test. The HET-CAM presented four false-positive results, showing a tendency of data overestimation. Despite the high specificity provided mainly by the RBC, it would be necessary to test a wider range of products representing all the scales of irritation to confirm its ability to be used as a first alternative to test products that could be presumptive non-irritants.

Adverse reactions to cosmetic products and the Notification System in Health Surveillance: a survey

INTRODUCTION This paper is part of a study that investigates the quality of cosmetic products and evaluates the cosmetic surveillance system. OBJECTIVE This study presents the results of a research that aimed to describe the point of view of the population in terms of the prevalence of Adverse Reactions (AR) and information about the surveillance system. METHODS A structured questionnaire was applied to a random sample of 200 people from the administrative staff of the Municipal Guard of Rio de Janeiro. RESULTS 38% of the participants declared AR to some cosmetic product used in the past two years. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is an unpublished study in Brazil, which presents results regarding the estimated prevalence of AR similarly to international studies.

A Reassessment of the in vitro total protein content determination (TPC) with SIRC and 3T3 cells for the evaluation of the ocular irritation potential of shampoos: comparison with the in vivo Draize rabbit test

The aim of this work was to determine the correlation between results obtained from the Draize test and from the Total Protein Content Determination (TPC) to assess the ocular irritancy potential of 20 shampoos. For TPC, two established cell lines (SIRC and 3T3) were used. The concentration that induced 50% inhibition relative to controls (IC50) was calculated for each product. Among shampoos tested with SIRC, only one had a false positive result. However, for the 3T3, three false-negative results were found. Pearson coefficient related to the in vivo value of maximum average score (MAS) was -0.58 (p=0.007) with SIRC and -0.73 (p=0.007) with 3T3. These results showed that the TPC assay was capable to predict the ocular irritant potential of shampoos, and therefore was a promissory tool to be used as a preliminary assay for the detection of irritant products and to be part of a battery of screening tests to minimize the animal use in the Draize Test.