A teenager swallows insecticide for a « challenge » on Tik Tok, a young man convulses after taking a new drug called PTC to “Blow your head”a family is poisoned by carbon monoxide: the Paris Poison Control Center “lives to the rhythm of intoxications”.
“When something happens, it always ends up calling us: we know that we are a good observatory”says Dr Jérôme Langrand, head of the structure, to AFP.
Created in 1959 and housed in the Lariboisière-Fernand Widal hospital (AP-HP), the capital’s poison control center – nine exist in France – responds to emergencies, in conjunction with the Samu and the firefighters, in the event of poisoning – domestic, industrial accident, environmental pollution.
Doctors, pharmacists and nurses specializing in medical toxicology provide 24 hours a day, on 01 40 05 48 48, with assistance in the diagnosis and treatment of 40,000 cases of poisoning per year in Ile-de-France as well as in Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.
“We ask specific questions about the person exposed to a product, a plant, a bite, to find out when and where it happened, if the person has health problems, what their symptoms are…”explains Dr Langrand.
“Depending on this and the knowledge we have on the compositions of the products, medications, mushrooms, plants or snakes involved, we will give advice for treatment, often at home in simple cases or at home. “hospital for the most serious”he adds.
Challenges “beasts” sur Tik Tok
Out of nostalgia, he keeps an old metal cabinet containing hundreds of cardboard index cards – now computerized. They list the composition provided by the manufacturer – a legal obligation – of shampoos, detergents, glues or varnishes, which, ingested or applied to the skin, are a source of poisoning.
Dr Jérôme Langrand, head of the poison control center at the Lariboisière-Fernand Widal hospital (AP-HP) in Paris, December 19, 2024 / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
Recent products intended for consumption also cause concern, such as nicotine sachets or « pouches »which must be banned soon. “Put under the gums, they quickly bring a significant quantity of nicotine into the blood, which gives a +flash+ effect”explains the doctor.
“Young people aged 15 to 20 will experience discomfort, cold sweats, a racing heart, decreasing blood pressure, vomiting, nausea and sometimes, more seriously, convulsions, heart rhythm disturbances”besides a possible “nicotine addiction”he explains.
Even more serious, adolescents “convulse after consuming synthetic cannabinoids, +Buddha Blue+ or PTC for +Blow your head+”continues Dr Langrand.
He also reports numerous “stupid accidents linked to challenges on TikTok” – recently, a “Teenage girl filmed herself putting insecticide in her mouth”– or a strong increase in poisoning with “fraudulent food supplements”.
Alert and inform
“Via social networks, influencers recommend food supplements supposed to contain herbs, natural things, to lose weight, or gain weight”reports the doctor. “In the lab, we find amphetamines, prohibited substances sold by people based outside France”. Alerted, fraud repression takes over to ban these products.
Poison control centers also have the mission of monitoring the toxic effects of domestic or industrial products (lead, mercury, etc.) to alert and inform the public, to evaluate the adverse effects of medications and to provide consultation on occupational pathologies. and environmental health.
The leading cause of accidental toxic death in France, carbon monoxide released by poor combustion of a heating appliance (gas, wood, coal, gasoline, fuel, etc.) is odorless and can kill in a few minutes: it often occupies poison control centers.
“A month ago, a dad went fishing with his 10-year-old son: to heat their tent at night, they put in a brazier. The child did not wake up, he had died. The dad didn’t notice anything, he didn’t have any symptoms”relates with emotion the nurse Edwige Biaou.
“With the high cost of electricity”she said, “these cases are recurring: the firefighters come and find people dead because of a charcoal brazier brought into the house”.