July 14 (UPI) — Health experts say in recent years the number of kids taken ill after ingesting nicotine products has surged.
A study published Monday in Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said from 2010-2023 that U.S. poison centers reported around 135,000 cases of nicotine poisoning among children under age 6.
And among the number of calls, two deaths were linked to kids younger than 6 in that 13-year time span.
It added that from 2020-2023 there was a 763% jump in calls involving nicotine.
According to the study, nearly all the calls occurred at home.
It included exposures to items such as nicotine pouches, cigarettes, chew tobacco, vapes and other nicotine-based products.
The study’s co-author pointed specifically to the rising popularity of nicotine pouches to explain a sharp increase in poison control center calls.
Nicotine is a highly toxic chemical and a small dose in children easily could exceed a fatal dose, a 2013 study suggested.
“The popularity of these products started in 2019,” said Natalie Rine, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center.
Nicotine pouches contain as much as 6 milligrams of the stimulant often promoted as a tobacco-free or other alternative to smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco.
In January, the FDA issued a proposed rule to limit the level of nicotine in cigarettes and other select tobacco products.
Rine said there was a “large” increase in nicotine pouch sales between 2019 and 2022 and that poison centers “started getting calls more frequently.”
About 1.5% of children and teens currently use the pouches, and less than 2.5% of young people have ever tried them, researchers found last year.
“It was just a matter of time before they fell into the hands of younger kids,” Dr. Molly O’Shea, a Michigan pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told NBC on Monday.” It’s unfortunate, but not shocking,” she added.
The chemical increases heart rate and blood pressure, and could lead to nausea, vomiting or even coma, the study authors wrote.
This new research says the poisoning rate via nicotine pouches under age 6 rose in 2020 from 0.48 per every 100,000 to 4.14 per 1000,000 kids in 2023, which represented a 763% bounce in only three years.
If a child is in he middle of a health emergency, Rine advised parents to first dial 911 and advised against induced vomiting as a remedy.
She recommended parents add the national poison control number to contacts: 1-800-222-1222.