Little is known about the use or misuse of cleaning products during the COVID-19 pandemic We compiled data from January to June in 2019 and 2020 from Canadian poison centres, and report on calls regarding selected cleaning products and present year-over-year percentage change There were 3408 (42%) calls related to bleaches;2015 (25%) to hand sanitizers;1667 (21%) to disinfectants;949 (12%) to chlorine gas;and 148 (2%) to chloramine gas An increase in calls occurred in conjunction with the onset of COVID-19, with the largest increase occurring in March Timely access to Canadian poison centre data facilitated early communication of safety messaging for dissemination to the public The Canadian Surveillance System for Poison Information (CSSPI) led by Health Canada is a developing network of poison centres, health authorities and regulatory agencies that facilitates early detection of poisoning incidents and alerting at the national level to inform harm reduction interventions In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns were raised over the potential for misuse of cleaning products and disinfectants;the CSSPI network monitored and assessed these concerns An overall increase in calls about select cleaning products and disinfectants occurred concurrently with the pandemic, with percentage increases for selected products as high as 400% compared to the same period in the previous year eng Publisher: Abstract available from the publisher fre
At-a-glance - Increases in exposure calls related to selected cleaners and disinfectants at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: data from Canadian poison centres