Many people associate poisoning primarily with children; however, this perspective is misleading when considering nonfatal and fatal poisonings. The charts below illustrate the distribution of poisoning exposures, nonfatal poisonings, and fatal poisonings by age group. The data on poisoning exposures come from the American Association of Poison Control Centers, reflecting the calls received by poison control centers. The nonfatal poisoning data represent emergency department visits, while fatality statistics are compiled from death certificates.
While 40% of poisoning exposures occur among young children—primarily due to the ingestion of personal care products such as cosmetics or cleaning products—fatal and nonfatal poisonings predominantly affect adults. This trend is largely driven by the opioid epidemic in the United States. Notably, although 40% of poisoning exposures involve children aged 5 or younger, 91% of nonfatal poisonings and 99% of fatalities occur in adults aged 19 and older.
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Nonfatal poisonings increased by 7.6% from 2022 to 2023, accounting for nearly 1.8 million emergency department visits. In 2024, fatal poisonings decreased by 24%, but still result in 75,791 deaths. Despite this dramatic decline, poisoning deaths have increased by 60% over the past 10 years. This rise is largely attributed to opioid overdose deaths (for more details, see the drug overdose page).
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Source: Fatal and nonfatal data – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WONDER
Poisoning exposures – Beuhler et al. (2025). 2024 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 42nd Annual Report. Clinical Toxicology.