CONTACT:  Katherine Jackson



                             PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
                          POISON PREVENTION WEEK, MARCH 17-23

                   CHILD-RESISTANT MEDICATION CONTAINERS SAVE LIVES

	The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that over 700 lives 
have been saved since 1970 as a result of child-resistant packaging of 
medications.
	"When child-resistant packing of drugs was required in 1970, the 
number of children exposed to drugs covered under the law fell by 40 percent.  
Not only have lives been saved but thousands of emergency department visits 
and hospitalizations have been avoided as well," said Dr. G. Randall Bond,  
medical director of the University of Virginia Blue Ridge Poison Center.
	He suggested that parents request child-resistant containers from 
their pharmacists when getting prescriptions filled.  Bond cautioned that 
although child-resistant caps could potentially save lives, it does not mean 
the container is child-proof.  "Some children can get into anything," he said.
	"Because children act fast and so do poisons, all medications should 
be kept out of reach and out of sight of children.  Lids should be replaced 
securely on the container. Refrigerated medications should not only be in 
child-resistant containers, but in locked boxes as well," Bond said. 
	For information about Poison Prevention Week, or the Blue Ridge 
Poison Center, call 1-800-451-1428.
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                                                    March 14, 1996