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NPIS Cardiff contributes to WHO poison centre guidance

The Cardiff Unit of the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) has recently been involved in a project to update World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on establishing a poison control centre.

Guidance for poisons control centres was originally published by the WHO in 1997, in order to help address the significant and growing risk posed from poisoning by chemicals, and to address the need to strengthen capacity to respond to such risks in countries around the world.

Since publication of the original guidelines there have been numerous developments in the roles and activities of poison centres, as well as broader developments in information management and IT. As such, a need arose to revise the guidelines for poison centres to continue to facilitate capacity building around the world in addressing risks posed by poisoning.

The updating of the WHO poison centre guidance was undertaken during 2020 and overseen by a WHO group of experts in poisoning from around the world. The NPIS unit in Cardiff, as well as the NPIS units in Birmingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle, were commissioned to update individual sections of the guidance. Each section of the guidance was reviewed by members of the WHO expert group, as well as being the topic of discussion at several workshop meetings, prior to finalisation.

The revised guidance was published in January 2021 and is made up of 11 sections; topics include:

  • the role of poison centres in the prevention and management of poisoning;
  • setting up a poisons information service, a clinical toxicology service, and an analytical toxicology service;
  • toxicovigilance and the prevention of poisoning;
  • the role of poison centres in the public health management of chemical incidents;
  • antidotes and antivenoms;
  • poison centre data collection and databases;
  • toxicological information resources;
  • the training of poison centre staff and quality assurance; and
  • potential sources of funding for poison centres.

Further information and a copy of the guidelines can be accessed from the WHO website.

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