Americans are poisoning themselves while trying to kill the coronavirus

Enlarge / Bottles of Clorox bleach sit on a shelf at a grocery store. (credit: Getty | Justin Sullivan)

From adults creating chlorine gas in their kitchens to toddlers guzzling hand sanitizer, Americans seem to be inadvertently poisoning themselves as they try to defend against the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Since the beginning of March-as the COVID-19 pandemic began raging in the US-calls to poison control centers nationwide "increased sharply," according a new study led by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although researchers cannot directly link pandemic preparedness to the poison control calls, "the timing of these reported exposures corresponded to increased media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of consumer shortages of cleaning and disinfection products, and the beginning of some local and state stay-at-home orders," the researchers write.

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