Halloween safety tips from the Atlantic Canada Poison Centre

There’s a little over a week until Halloween and while it's a fun time for young trick-or-treaters, the Atlantic Canada Poison Centre says it’s also important for parents to keep safety in mind.

Laurie Mosher, a certified specialist in poison information with centre, says glowsticks are a common poison issue for children this time of year.

“It’s not that you’re going to die if you drink it, but it’s defiantly an irritant,” she said during an interview on CTV Morning Live Atlantic. “A lot of kids when they play with a glowstick they bite them, especially the necklaces and the bracelets and that, and so they get it on their skin, sometimes it splashes in their eyes, sometimes in their mouth and it can cause significant irritation.”

If a child does get an irritant on them, Mosher suggests parents call the Atlantic Canada Poison Centre immediately for instructions on what to do.

“It’s going to be different depending on the root of exposure, so, for example, if the child got the glow stick in their eye, it would be getting in the shower and flush for a good 15 minutes, which can seem like forever,” she said. “And if they got it on their skin it would be in the shower as well, and if they got it in their mouth we would get getting them to dilute with water.”

Mosher said the Poison Centre also gets calls the day after Halloween about glow sticks.

“Because they’re getting older, they’ve bent them, played with them, bit them,” she said.

Mosher said parents should also be aware of other Halloween decorations and toys, especially anything that could be a choking hazard or with batteries inside.

“You should definitely check the decorations and make sure that they’re age appropriate. Make sure children don’t swallow – the button batteries are really bad if they are swallowed,” she said.

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Another potential poison issue is children confusing cannabis candies for actual Halloween candies.

Mosher showed examples of cannabis candies packaging brought into the IWK Health Centre in Halifax from real cases of children ingesting them. The packaging looked very similar to actual candy packaging.

Mosher said cannabis poisoning can be “really bad” depending on the dose.

“Because they’re candy children will eat the whole package and we’ve had a few children that had to be intubated, put on a ventilator, very drowsy and their breathing can be a concern. They can have other symptoms as well, like vomiting and being just terrified – shaky, seizure activity in high doses,” she said.

Mosher recommends parents check all their children’s treats when they come home from trick-or-treating.

“To make sure it is in fact candy,” she said. “And the other thing to do is if you have any cannabis products in the home or nicotine pouches or anything like that, you lock it up. It’s not enough to put it away, especially with the older children, you need to lock it up out of site.”

People can call the Atlantic Canada Poison Centre at 1-844-POISON-X.