Last year the Tox Info Suisse Foundation provided a total of 41,261 individual consultations on suspected poisoning via the poisoning emergency number 145. This corresponds to an increase of 1.7% compared to 2022, the foundation announced on Monday.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Compared to 2022, slightly fewer consultations on poisoning with medication were carried out in Switzerland. Nevertheless, these still accounted for more than a third of emergency calls in 2023 (35.8%) and thus most suspected cases of poisoning. In the previous year, this figure was 36.7%, the foundation said.
In second place last year were poisonings with household products, which accounted for a further 22.9% of consultations. Consultations on all other possible causes of poisoning such as food, personal care products, mushrooms, poisonous animals or stimulants such as drugs and alcohol were all in the single-digit percentage range.
Around 40% of enquiries to the Tox Info Suisse Foundation related to children of pre-school age, typically in connection with accidents, according to the report. In turn, around 5% of all calls concerned adolescents, whereby, according to the foundation, the main focus was on intentional poisoning. This mainly involved suicide attempts and, to a lesser extent, the misuse of substances.
However, enquiries about suicide attempts had decreased overall, it added. According to the report, 7% fewer calls (308 fewer enquiries) were received about suicide attempts compared to 2022. However, Tox Info Suisse stated that the pre-pandemic level had not yet been reached.
Meanwhile, enquiries about iodine tablets were significantly more frequent in 2023 than in previous years. According to Tox Info Suisse, the number of calls for iodine tablets is increasing as part of the precautionary distribution to households within a 50-kilometre radius of nuclear power plants, which takes place every ten years.
In Switzerland the emergency number for poisoning is 145. Specially trained physicians will give advice 24/7 in cases of poisoning with, for example, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, other drugs, poisonous plants, mushrooms or venomous animals.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
First large-scale alpine solar plant approved in Switzerland
This content was published on
The approval was met with satisfaction by the project's organisers, but it also brings with it a certain amount of pressure.
Medieval squirrels may have ‘helped spread leprosy’
This content was published on
An examination of squirrel remains in the United Kingdom has opened up interesting questions and possibilities in terms of the history of the disease.
Swiss money laundering office registers record number of reports
This content was published on
The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) registered a record number of reports of suspicious activity last year.
Two teens accused of planning terror attack released from custody
This content was published on
The Schaffhausen judiciary has released the two teenagers from custody who allegedly planned bomb attacks in Switzerland.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.