National Animal Poison Information

Poison control centers maintain extensive computerized indices on the active ingreili-ents and probable clinical toxicology of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Most of these centers will accept emergency calls from veterinarians. Alternatively, the National Animal Poison Information Center, located at the University of Illinois in Urbana, provides computer-supported telephone consultation on potential acute drug toxicoses for a fee. 

V. R. Beasley and D. J. Schaeffer, Ecosystem health. IV. The National Animal Poison Information Network Database as a tool for ecological risk assessment, Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol., 1989, 10, 63-73. 

Use of National Library of Medicine s Toxicology Data Bank is highly recommended for the 2,600 substances for which it provides animal and human toxicology data, chemical and physical properties, formulas, laboratory methods, poisoning potential and antidote information. Data for the TDB are extracted from handbooks and textbooks and reviewed by a peer review group of subject specialists. 

What are the known acute toxic effects of the product based on human exposures Initially, one might say that such information usually does not exist since our society does not condone human experimentation involving products other than drugs. Conversely, it could be argued that such information could be obtained from unplanned human exposures but that these would only occur after the product had been placed on the market. Thus, the information would not be available to the label writer at the time that it was needed. While the former statement is usually true the latter is usually not. It is the unusual product that does not have several close relatives if not a twin already in the market place. Thus, such human exposure information probably exists. One source of such information is the National Poison Center Network whose resources will be described later in this chapter. Obviously, such exposure information is undeniably superior to all others since humans form the principal audience that is to be addressed by the first aid statements. Manufacturers should make every effort to obtain such information. As previously mentioned, the sole dependency on animal studies may lead to erroneous conclusions. 

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