Alerting and Surveillance Using Poisons Information Systems (ASPIS): outcomes from an international working group

In recent years, awareness of the risks of chemical and poison exposure has increased, and a number of highly publicized terrorist events have heightened community fears. In particular, there is concern surrounding the potential risk of a covert release, which underpins the need to develop robust methods of population surveillance.

This article outlines the proceedings of a working group and focuses on the need for greater international cooperation and understanding of existing toxicological surveillance systems in a variety of countries. Poison control centers have well-established local networks and experienced staff, which make them well-placed to detect chemical and poison release. This needs further development to ensure timely detection of signals, which might be better achieved by robust international networks and consistent use of data collection tools. We illustrate some of the strengths and weaknesses of existing surveillance methods, and present a position statement on the minimum dataset required by future surveillance systems.

Poison control centers provide a useful platform for developing surveillance activity. Having proposed a number of common aims and objectives, it is hoped that these consensus statements will inform decision makers and stimulate discussion of how international toxicological surveillance programs might best be developed.