If you are a parent, grandparent, caregiver, or family member of a child under the age of 18, you should be aware of the benefits of medication storage. Even if you don’t have any prescription medications, locking medicine storage can help protect the ones you love from seemingly-harmless vitamins and supplements. Here are five ways you could save a life today by taking this one, simple action.
1. Help Protect Children from Vitamin Poisoning
Vitamins and natural supplements may seem harmless and safe, but to a young child they pose a dangerous risk. Many multivitamins contain iron, a beneficial mineral needed for blood production. When an infant, toddler, or child accidentally consumes too much of this mineral, however, the results can be deadly. High concentrations of iron results in cell death, and organ failure, which can occur in as little as 12 hours after ingestion.
Iron is the most common cause of child poisoning deaths reported to poison control centers in the United States.
Vitamins, especially those made for children, often look and taste like a candy treat. Securing vitamin and supplements with locking medicine storage can help save the life of a child you know and love.
2. Help Protect Children from Medicine Poisoning
Each year, 67,000 children are seen for accidental medication exposure in emergency rooms across the U.S. The most frequently seen poison victims are the youngest; toddlers ages 13 to 24 months account for 68% of medication-related ER visits.
Whose medicine is sending these young children to the emergency room? Surprisingly, 9 out of every 10 poison exposures to children occur in the home.
- 38% - medicines belonged to a grandparent
- 31% - medicines belonged to the mother
- 12% - medicines belonged to a sibling
- 8% - medicines belonged to the father
- 5% - medicines belonged to aunt/uncle
- 6% - unknown
In most of these instances, medications were found in a purse or bag, on a counter or nightstand, or in a pillbox or bag of pills.
Locking medicine storage can help save the life of a child from accidental medicine poisoning. While a locking storage box may contain your medications at home, a locking pill bottle is more convenient when traveling, for medications that you carry in your purse or a bag, or for medications that are stored somewhere other than a locked medicine cabinet.
3. Help Protect Pre-Teens and Teens from Prescription Drug Abuse
The #1 reason teens use prescription drugs is they are easy to get from a parent’s medicine cabinet.
6.1 million people over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs non-medically in the last month alone. Pain relievers, tranquilizers, and stimulants - including Adderall - are the most common prescription drugs teens try.
By securing your prescription drugs with locking medicine storage, you are helping protect your pre-teen and teen children from the temptation to try these drugs recreationally. Pill bottle locks, locking medicine cabinets, and locked boxes can help save your teen from a one-time fatal overdose or potential drug addiction.
4. Help Protect Your Teen’s Friends from Prescription Drug Abuse
Your teen may be educated about the dangers of prescription drug abuse, and able to exercise the good judgement to stay away from your pills. Are their friends? What about other teenagers in your family or neighborhood who spend time at your home? The reality is, teens are trying prescription drugs to get high, lose weight, or improve alertness and concentration every single day.
70% of prescription drugs are bought, taken, or freely given to a teen from a friend or relative.
Locking up your medications can help protect your children’s teenage friends, neighbors, or relatives from accessing the prescriptions in your home. A simple locking pill container could be the barrier that prevents a lifetime of pill dependency, or even a one-time fatal overdose.
5. Help Protect Yourself from Liability and Responsibility
The consequences of an infant, toddler, child, or teen getting access to your vitamins, supplements, or prescription medication can be fatal. The number of children dying from poisoning has more than doubled since 1999. Securing your medication and vitamins with a locking medicine storage device can help protect you from the devastating risk of legal liability, and personal responsibility, for the death of a child you love.
