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The Canadian Association for Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicology
Established in 1982, the Canadian Association for Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicology (formerly called the Canadian Association of Poison Control Centres) provides a centralized, volunteer forum for communication, information and idea exchange among Canada’s five poison centres.
While its members are primarily professionals working in the poison centres, other members have included:
Pharmacists
Pharmaceutical Companies
Forensic Toxicologists
Public
Health Staff
Emergency Physicians
Canada’s Poison Centres
Today’s five centres, established in the 1980s and 1990s to respond to public inquiries about poison exposure, took over from local emergency-department-based poison response telephone lines.
While initially calls to the centres came from the public, over the years, healthcare providers have come to rely on the toxicological expertise of poison centre staff to assist with management of poisoned patients who present to healthcare facilities across the country.
Each centre strives to follow the criteria as set by America’s Poison Centres for certification. Registered nurses and pharmacists answering the information lines in each of these Canadian centres are eligible for certification as a Specialist in Poison Information. Learn more about becoming a Certified Specialist in Poison Information.
Pan-Canadian Poison Centres Annual Reports
Annual reports present data from all five Canadian poison centres and highlight the critical role of these centres in poison prevention efforts. The reports are released by the Canadian Association for Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (CAPCCT), Health Canada and Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention.
Pan-Canadian Poison Centres
2022 Annual Report
Key findings
- In 2022, Canada’s poison centres managed 206,586 cases
- Approximately one-third of exposure cases involved a child aged 5 or under
- The majority (67.2 per cent) of exposure cases were unintentional incidents
- Suspected substance- and toxin-related self-harm exposure cases increased roughly five-per-cent from 2021
- The most common exposure substances were medications for pain relief (analgesics) and drugs commonly used to treat mental health conditions (antidepressants)
- Poison centre data and expertise resulted in two public advisories and one public health notice from the Public Health Agency of Canada addressing potential harms from the misuse of COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit solutions, a shortage of children’s ibuprofen/acetaminophen and aconitine toxin poisoning.
Pan-Canadian Poison Centres
2021 Annual Report
Key findings
- In 2021, Canada’s poison centres managed 210,043 cases
- Approximately one-third of exposure cases involved a child aged 5 or under
- The majority (67.5 per cent) of exposure cases were unintentional incidents
- Suspected substance- and toxin-related self-harm exposure cases increased 18 per cent compared to 2020
- The most common exposure substances were medications for pain relief (analgesics) and household cleaning substances
- Poison centre data and expertise guided policy work and regulatory action, led to early warnings and alerting of safety signals, and resulted in five public advisories addressing potential harms from flame colourants, cleaning products, acetaminophen, ivermectin and unregulated cannabis products
Pan-Canadian Poison Centres
2020 Annual Report
Key findings
- In 2020, Canada’s poison centres managed 215,589 cases
- More than one-third of exposure cases involved a child aged 5 or under
- The majority (74.5 per cent) of exposure cases were unintentional incidents
- Poison centres managed 30,331 cases resulting from suspected substance- and toxin-related self-harm
- The most common exposure substances were medications for pain relief (analgesics) and household cleaning substances
- Poison centre data and expertise contributed to publications, including the Evidence Summary on the Prevention of Poisoning in Canada, and policy changes in hand sanitizer packaging and apricot kernel cyanide limit
National poisoning statistics
As poison centres are funded provincially, each province has different reporting requirements and formats. Currently, no federal government department keeps of reports national poisoning statistics, except for those resulting in death.
In 2020, Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention, and the Injury Prevention Centre at the University of Alberta coauthored the Evidence Summary for the Prevention of Poisoning in Canada. The poison centres worked closely with the report authors and it provides the best – though not complete – current picture of poisoning information for Canada.
Our Mandates
- To find ways to reduce the morbidity and mortality from poisonings.
- To represent Poison Centres as a group in interactions with public health and governmental agencies.
- To set standards for poison control centre operations.
- To promote scientific research in the area of toxicology.
- To provide a forum for poison control centres and individuals or institutions interested in toxicology to discuss matters of mutual concern.
- To establish educational programs for health professionals with an interest or involvement in poison control.
- To set up, or to evaluate existing injury prevention programs and materials for the public.
- To partner with America’s Poison Centers to hold a joint Annual Scientific Meeting which attracts participants from North America as well as from other countries.
- To represent Canadian Centres at the World Federation of Associations of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicology Centres.
History of poison response in Canada
Accessing product information: a key challenge
When the Canadian Poison Control Program started in 1957, patent and proprietary medicine formulas were registered in the then federal Food and Drugs Directorate. Because of confidentiality, only selected information was given to a physician on direct request or in an emergency. In 1965, there was no regulation that allowed for product information to be given to poison centres.
To address this problem, Health and Welfare Canada collaborated with industry and manufacturers to establish a voluntary mechanism to collect and distribute product formulations to the poison centres. The federal government product database was maintained and distributed until 1986 when the program was cut.
In 1988, this responsibility was handed over the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), which agreed to receive Canadian product formulations from industry and manufacturers. The CAPCC decided that the needs of its members would be best served by incorporating the Canadian data into the existing U.S.-based POISINDEX database that was presently being used by all members.
The Canadian federal data files were downloaded into the POISINDEX system and updates provided. Late in 2005, the Ottawa Regional Poison Centre based at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, which up to then had maintained POISINDEX entries, closed. After this, only a limited amount of Canadian information has been sent to be included in POISINDEX.
Some Canadian companies, primarily industrial, submit their product information to the centre for Occupational Health, based in Hamilton ON, which maintains a database on potentially poisonous products used in workplaces.