Budget Committee Seeks To Close Poison Center in Tucson

Jan. 21, 2009

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, a public health service at The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy that serves all regions of Arizona other than Maricopa County, will be closed, possibly as soon as February, if a proposal before the Arizona Legislature is adopted.

Included on the Legislature’s Web site in the Jan. 16 posting of state budget proposals for Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010 developed by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee was the option of funding only the poison center that now serves Maricopa County. It reads:
This option would eliminate funding for the University of Arizona Poison Control Center [sic] and make Good Samaritan Hospital the sole poison control center for the state and reduces total funding by 50%.

Should the Legislature adopt this proposal from the JLBC, the poison center that has served Arizona for more than 50 years will be forced to stop all its services. The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center takes about 70,000 calls annually from Arizona citizens and health professionals about exposures to toxic substances, bites and stings from venomous creatures and the effects of prescribed and over-the-counter drugs.

The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center also conducts the following unique functions:

Serves as a teaching site for medical, pharmacy, nursing, public health and basic science students and for U.S. Army trainees in emergency medicine.

Operates a Pregnancy Riskline service that advises 3,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and their physicians annually. It provides national leadership for the safety of unborn babies who are exposed to poisons.

Performs as an international leader in antivenom research. Faculty at the poison center have been instrumental in the development of antivenom for rattlesnake bite and scorpion sting. Since 2003, the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center has been the 24/7 point of contact for the only scorpion antivenom available in the United States. This program has provided investigational antivenom support to more than 650 Arizonans, mostly small children, who would otherwise have required intensive care at a cost of millions of dollars overall.

Provides clear and unbiased drug information to physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals.

“To eliminate Arizona’s first and only poison and drug information center would be a grave disservice to the people of Arizona,” said UA President Robert N. Shelton. “We are not just a poison center; The University of Arizona center is the only center providing the state’s physicians, nurses, pharmacists and public with expert, unbiased information about all drugs, legal and illegal. We are the only center in the state offering a teratogen hotline to women and their physicians concerned about the effects of various drugs on the developing fetus. We are the only service in Arizona of antivenom for critically ill children suffering from the severe effects of scorpion sting. These are services not offered by Banner that the people of Arizona want and deserve.”

J. Lyle Bootman, dean of the College of Pharmacy, raised additional concerns. “The privatization of critical public health services in the form of a bail-out to a private hospital system just seems wrong when the state’s college of pharmacy has such a well-established program – plus the center has been educating young health-care providers for decades.”

The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center began as a volunteer effort of UA College of Pharmacy faculty in the mid 1950s to provide expert information about toxic household products to Arizona pediatricians. In 1980, the State Legislature designated it to provide poison control services, through a free emergency hotline, for the state. Since that time, operating funds have been allocated to the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, as established by statute, through the Arizona Department of Health Services. Today the center is staffed around the clock by pharmacists who are additionally certified as poison information specialists. Physician consultation is available 24/7 at the center.

An community group called Alliance To Save the Poison Information Center began forming today. It has initiated a blog for information and stories from people who have benefited from the poison center at http://aspicinfo.blogspot.com