About the Swedish Poisons Information Centre

The following text is an excerpt from our annual report. On the right you find the complete annual report 2011 as a pdf file. It includes statistics, list of publications etc.

Administration

The Swedish Poisons Information Centre started in 1960 and is located at the Karolinska University Hospital. Since November 1st 2009 the centre is a part of the Medical Product Agency. The budget for the year 2011 was 3.6 million Euro.

The centre is staffed by 34 full-time employees: 6 physicians, 24 pharmacists, 3 administrative personnel and 1 computer technician. The main responsibility of the pharmacists is the telephone service. An internal education and training period of three to six months is required before new pharmacists are allowed to answer telephone calls on their own. The physicians, specialized in anaesthesiology, intensive care and clinical toxicology have the medical responsibility. They also have the possibility to practice in the ICU on a regular basis.

Operations

Telephone service
The main responsibility of the centre is to inform about risks, symptoms and treatment in cases of acute poisoning. The service is on a twenty-four hour basis and connected to the national alarm number 112. Inquiries are received from hospitals and physicians as well as from the general public. The centre is the only unit of this kind in Sweden and serves a population of 9.4 million inhabitants.

Antidote programme
The poisons centre gives advice on the selection and amount of antidotes to be stored in hospitals all over the country. The centre keeps an updated register of stocks of antidotes in collaboration with hospitals and pharmacies in Sweden. An updated list on the use of antidotes with treatment instructions is also issued by the centre.

Toxicovigilance and prevention
An important task is to alert authorities and manufacturers on trends and risks of poisoning with e.g. new pharmaceuticals or chemical products. Information materials for different purposes, e.g. books, posters and brochures on the prevention of poisoning and first aid measures are regularly produced.

Swedish National ICE Centre
The poisons centre is the Swedish National ICE (International Chemical Environ¬ment) Centre, the Swedish part of a European network of emergency response centres for chemical accidents, initiated and financed by the chemical industry. This means that the centre, along with health hazards information and first aid advice, provides information regarding environmental hazards from safety data sheets concerning chemical products from the participating companies.

Major chemical accidents
In the field of major chemical accidents the centre is the expert body of the National Board of Health and Welfare and is also together with the National Board of Health and Welfare responsible for the antidote programme in case of major accidents.

Education
The centre participates in several different education programmes e.g. postgraduate courses for physicians and other medical personnel. Among the many teaching activities, a national course for doctors during their specializing period with 75 participants can be mentioned.

Publications
Two publications are written by the centre on regular basis; a chapter on drug over¬dose, updated every year, as well as a list of antidotes with treatment instructions, updated every second year. The former is a chapter in the catalogue on Pharmaceutical specialities in Sweden, FASS. The list of antidotes is published in a book called Läkemedelsboken, LB. These books are distributed to all physicians and pharmacies in the country. The centre also publishes articles in medical journals, books etc

Research
Studies of certain poisonings, often in close collaboration with hospitals, e.g. to elucidate the severity of poisoning, epidemiological data, circumstances of poisoning incidents or to evaluate new treatment recommendations, are continually ongoing activities.

National
The centre collaborates with a number of national organizations like the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, the Swedish Chemicals Agency and the National Board of Health and Welfare.

International

* General Secretary of the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologist (EAPCCT)
* Chairman of the Nordic Association of Poisons Centres (NAPC)
* CPNP working group (Cosmetics Notification Portal)
* Member in CEFIC. ICE Integration Group
* “Expert workshop” for Life Long Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci
* EAPCCT - Workshop on the Harmonisation of Information to be submitted to Poison Centres - CLP
* Appointed by EAPCCT and AACT, together with Professor William Troutman, New Mexico, to write an update to the "Position Statement on Ipecac".

Sources of Information

Toxicological and medical data is collected from different sources and processed to be used in the telephone service. The means and ways of poisoning are continuously changing which makes it very important to update the information. Medical articles published in the world literature are processed and new information integrated into the database.

Case records
An important source of information is discharge summaries collected from hospitals. This information is especially essential in unusual cases of poisoning or when a drug or chemical is new on the market. The centre receives approximately 4,000 copies from Swedish hospitals annually

Product information
Incidents with chemical products are relatively common. In order to make as accurate an assessment as possible in each case and give appropriate advice, the poisons centre needs detailed information about the contents of various chemical products. This information, sent to the center by manufacturers and importers on a voluntary basis, is kept strictly confidential. On the same conditions the Swedish Chemicals Agency as well as the industry provide the centre with information on pesticides.

Substance monographs
The ambition is to have updated monographs on those pharmaceuticals, chemical substances and natural toxins which frequently occur in poisoning. These documents are elaborated by the poisons centre staff and focus on symptoms and treatment.