Has your child eaten any poison today?
Sounds silly, put that way, but after talking with two of the city's leading experts we're convinced that:
(1) A child will swallow anything , . . perfume, mothballs, furniture polish, paint, kerosene . . . name it, and a tot has wallowed it,
(Somewhere in the city, some child is probably swallowing something right now which may poison him. Charity Hospital alone treats an average of one such patient a day.)
(2) Many poison deaths and permanent injuries aren't even detected as such. Accidental poisonings here and nationally may actually be as much as four times higher than the records show.
(3) Poisoning is becoming tougher to detect every day, with chemistry supplying hundreds of new household and cosmetic compounds. Nobody's supposed to swallow them but, of course, tots do. (4) A Poison Control Center, an immense stride forward in treatment and prevention of poison accidents, is within New Orleans' grasp.
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SUCH A CENTER awaits three developments, all obtainable:
f Shouldering of the re-1 sponsibility by an organization with proper personnel and zeal. It's apt to t)e, LSU Medical School, whose top authorities endorse the plan and are now looking into its feasability.
■f A modest annual budget, probably from research and public-interest funds.
1} Strong support from local medical circles, for whom such a center is tailored.
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IT'S A CHALLENGE of absorbing interest to two doctors in New Orleans—Dr^JRudolph J.. Muejling, Jr., pathologist for the Orleans coroner's office and associate professor of pathology at the LSU School of Medicine; and his associate, Dr.Charlejs Petty, also with LSU as assistant professor of pathology,
With the help of Coroner Nicholas Chetta and his staff, these two young doctors for the past year have built up exten sive data for such a Poison Con trol Center, and offer aid tc any inquiring doctor.
The fledgling service has been little known, however,
because the two doctors* double-jobs limit their time. Too, there was no budget for a center.
It was from Drs. Petty and Muelling that much trf the local data came for our recent Item series, spotlighting for the first! time, the pressing need for a full-fledged New Orleans Poison Control Center.
The State Health Education Division, too, has voiced keen interest. Its files show 279 ac-j cidental poisoning deaths in Louisiana during 1949-55.
And the dangers are increasing daily. It's Dr. Petty who estimates that for every known accidental poisoning, there are three undetected.
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TODAY DEAN WILLIAM FRYE of the LSU medical school endorsed the principle of a Poison Control center . . . and if possible its establishment at LSU.
If this comes about, not only will emergency advice be given medics promptly, day or night, in cases of accidental poisoning, hut research and education will be stressed,
"It's a vast area, and there is really limited knowledge as | to poisons and their effects,"! the dean noted.
"However, in order to establish such a center, funds must be made available for personnel and other necessary items. PHOTO: Tens of thousands of commercial products are being tabulated for poison ingredients in weighty tomes like these new ones acquired by Drs Charles Petty and Rudolph Muellihg, Jr. But area-made household products not found in national compilations present still another big problem of fact-gathering for a Poison Control Center here.
