March 15-21 | National Awareness

March 15-21 marks National Poison Prevention Week, a national effort to prevent accidental poisonings, one of the leading causes of injury for young children in the United States.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of children are exposed to potentially toxic substances. For children under six, most exposures happen at home and involve everyday items: medications, cleaning products, cosmetics, alcohol, and increasingly, button batteries and small electronics.

What many families don't realize is that not all poisonings look dramatic.

• Some are immediate and obvious: vomiting, choking, severe pain.
• Others are silent at first, especially button battery ingestions, which can cause catastrophic internal burns in as little as two hours, even if a child initially appears fine.

Prevention Requires Layered Protection

• Store medications and household chemicals locked and out of sight, not just "up high."
• Keep products in original packaging with safety labeling intact.
• Check battery compartments to ensure they require a tool (like a screw) to open.
• Dispose of used batteries immediately and safely.
• Program Poison Help (1-800-222-1222) into your phone.

Behind every statistic is a child, a family, and a preventable injury. Poison prevention is not about blame; it is about systems, product design, education, and accountability working together.

At Reese's Purpose, we advocate for stronger product standards, clearer warning labels, safer battery packaging, and better injury reporting, because prevention must extend beyond the home. Families deserve products designed with safety as the priority, not an afterthought.

Prevention is possible. And it starts with awareness.

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