It’s a scenario virtually every parent has faced at some point: they know or suspect their child has ingested something poisonous or toxic and need to act quickly.
Most parents know in this scenario the first place to call is the national Poison Control hotline at 1-800-222-1222, but Greenville is also home to the state’s only medical toxicology program through Prisma Health Upstate.
Mushroom scare
Greenville mother Leslie Smith discovered this local resource last August when her youngest daughter popped a mysterious mushroom into her mouth while the family was outside gardening.
It took only a moment and by the time Smith’s oldest daughter pointed out her 11-month-old sister was chewing on something she shouldn’t, Smith said she could only tell her daughter had ingested some sort of mushroom.
“I didn’t know how long she had it in her mouth,” Smith said. “It just looked really nasty.”
At this point, Smith said her “mom brain” kicked in and she decided to call Poison Control.
Through that call she learned there are toxic mushrooms in South Carolina and that she should watch for nausea or diarrhea as indicators her daughter had ingested enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room.
She and her daughter did end up going to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital emergency department on Grove Road, where she learned her daughter’s health was not in immediate danger.
What Smith did not expect was the expertise of an on-site medical toxicologist. With additional tests, that doctor was able to reassure her that her daughter had not ingested enough of the mushroom to potentially harm her kidneys.
“I was just super impressed with how serious they took the situation because nobody really knew if it was poisonous or not,” Smith said. “I was just really appreciative of that.”
Toxic trends
Unfortunately, a fair number of cases coming to the toxicology department for care are not accidents involving the explorations of very young children but ill-advised choices by older children and adults persuaded by social media.
Various dares on platforms such as TikTok have prompted far too many toxicology consultations in emergency rooms locally and nationwide, according to David Schaffer, director of medical toxicology for Prisma Health Upstate’s department of emergency medicine.
Schaffer explained social media-driven phenomena, such as 2018’s “Tide Pod challenge” on TikTok, prompted thousands of ER visits nationwide as teens ingested laundry detergent pods on a dare.
More recently in 2023, a similar social media challenge prompted many young people to ingest alarming quantities of a common antihistamine in hopes of inducing hallucinations.
Schaffer has seen local examples of many of these trends as well as countless other more commonplace exposures to potentially toxic substances.
He said he always advises people to be aware of the toxicologist’s mantra: The dose makes the poison.
“And so there is nothing that is not poison,” Schaffer said. “It’s all about the dose.”
From household chemicals to prescription medicines, from art supplies to dietary supplements, all are potentially hazardous at a certain dose, Schaffer said.
This is especially important to remember for substances with reputed health benefits.
Dietary supplements and the recent proliferation of THC-containing products are particular areas of concern, Schaffer said. Such products are only very loosely regulated, and consumers have no real way of knowing exactly what each of those products contain.
With such an array of possible perils surrounding everyone, Schaffer said it’s important to know where to go for information on assessing the health risks to exposure to a potentially toxic substance.
He said the first and best place to start is the national Poison Control center, either through its 24-hour hotline at 1-800-222-1222 or website at poison.org. Nonemergency questions can be directed to Prisma Health’s medical toxicology clinic at 877 W. Faris Road, Suite A, Greenville, or by dialing 864-455-7800.
Toxicology tips
- Don’t tell children medicine tastes like candy. The association could prompt them to overdose on something they find tasty but could be harmful.
- Don’t take medicine in front of children.
- Be wary of dietary supplements. Loose federal regulations mean it’s hard to tell what they actually contain.
Source: David Schaffer, director of medical toxicology for Prisma Health Upstate
