[Poison episodes reported to French poison control centers in 2006]

This article presents an overview of the human exposures reported to the ten French poison control centres in 2006 for the toxicological response to emergencies. The figures are extracted from the national database of poisonings and from the activity reports. In 2006,197 042 cases of human exposure have been completed and 130463 analyzed. The vast majority (82.5%) of poison exposures are unintentional. Thus, children from 1 to 4 years old are the most concerned (46.3%); pharmaceuticals (28%), followed by the household products (19.2%) are mostly involved. The intentional intoxications (14.1%) are mainly suicides (92.6%) and women are more concerned (62.4%). Pharmaceuticals (65.8%), especially paracetamol (9.8%), are most often involved. Fatal poisonings (138) are mostly intentional (65.4%) and are observed among people from 30 to 59 years old (53.8%). Ethanol (15.2%), carbon monoxide (14.5%) and fires smoke (5.8%) are the agents most frequently involved in fatal poisonings.