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Minnesota Regional Poison Center 2025 Annual Report

Leadership and Education Team

Director: Samantha Lee, PharmD, DABAT
Medical Director: Jon Cole, MD, FACEP, FACMT, FAACT
Associate Medical Directors: Benjamin Orozco, MD; Travis Olives, MD, MPH; Lesley Pepin, MD; Ryan Fuchs, MD
Clinical Supervisor: Carrie Oakland, PharmD, DABAT
Educators: Mandy Slag, RN, MPH; Kirk Hughes, RN, EMT, CSPI

About the Poison Center

  • 1-800-222-1222, available 24/7, including all holidays
  • Calls are free of charge
  • Minnesota Relay and interpretive services available
  • Staffed by specially trained pharmacists nationally certified as Specialists in Poison Information
  • For more information, visit our website:
    www.mnpoison.org
  • Take our free online poison prevention training program at
    training.mnpoison.org,
    or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or X @MNpoisoncenter

2025 Key Facts and Stats

  • Provided immediate help to 45,337 callers
  • Poison specialists assisted an average of 124 people each day
  • 26% of patient cases involved health care providers seeking treatment recommendations
  • 93% of exposures occurring in a residential setting were safely managed at home with Poison Center assistance
  • 33% of cases involved a child under the age of 6 years
  • 91% of cases transferred from nurse lines were managed at home
  • 78% of callers would have sought emergency medical attention if the Poison Center was not available
  • 67% of exposures involved prescription and/or over-the-counter medications

Age of Patients

Poisonings affect individuals of all ages, from babies to seniors.
Approximately 33% of exposure cases involved children under the age of 6 years.
More serious outcomes were typically seen in teenagers and adults due to a larger number of intentional exposures occurring in these groups.

  • <2 years old: 5,969
  • 2-5 years old: 8,325
  • 6-12 years old: 3,0752
  • 13-19 years old: 4,196
  • 20-59 years old: 13,565
  • 60 and over years old: 4,981

*Unknown adult category contains 2,771 callers of unknown age.

Top 5 Substances Involved in Poisoning

Non-Drug

  1. Household Cleaners
  2. Cosmetics, Personal Care Items
  3. Foreign Bodies, Toys, Silica Gel Packets
  4. Alcohols
  5. Chemicals

Drug

  1. Pain drugs
  2. Antidepressants
  3. Blood pressure drugs
  4. Sedatives/Hypnotics, Antipsychotics
  5. Allergy drugs

Reason for Exposure

Individuals who contact the Poison Center have many different reasons for calling.
Unintentional exposures can include accidents, mistakes when using products, food poisoning, or errors with medicine. Intentional exposures can be due to abuse, misuse, or suicide attempts.
Adverse reactions can happen with drugs or other substances. Other reasons are less common, but can include tampering or contamination.

  • Unintentional: 31,178
  • Intentional: 10,042
  • Adverse Reaction: 1,032
  • Other: 418

Caller Site

Approximately half of the exposure calls to the Minnesota Regional Poison Center came from residential settings and over a quarter came from health care facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, or emergency medical services providers. Other common call sites included workplaces and schools.

  • Residence: 25,826
  • Health Care Facility: 11,382
  • Other: 4,403
  • Workplace: 1,275
  • School: 84

Management Site

In 2025, 93% of residential cases were able to be safely managed at home.
For cases originating from healthcare facilities, the Poison Center was able to assist providers seeking patient treatment recommendations. By keeping patients at home and reducing average hospital stays with treatment advice, the Poison Center is able to help save both time and money.

  • Non-Health Care Facility: 26,062
  • Health Care Facility: 13,326
  • Other/Unknown: 1,894

Medical Outcomes

Overall, 68% of Poison Center cases had outcomes with little or no effect being seen in the patient. Prompt attention to poison exposures helps to reduce the likelihood of severe toxicity, preventing poor outcomes.

  • Non-Toxic Exposure: 69.4%
  • Minor Effect: 15.8%
  • Moderate Effect: 7.7%
  • Unrelated Effect: 3.5%
  • Major Effect: 2%
  • Death: <0.01%
  • Lost to Follow-Up, Potentially Toxic: 2%

*Percentages do not add up to 100 due to rounding.

Poison Education

Public Education

Community education efforts focus on poison prevention and increasing awareness of the Poison Center’s services among people of all ages.

In 2025, a total of 39,048 pieces of poison prevention materials, including brochures, magnets in English and Spanish, medication trackers, and stickers, were distributed to citizens and healthcare providers.

In 2025, nearly 7,300 Minnesotans were educated through 252 outreach events attended by the Minnesota Regional Poison Center and its partners.

Professional Education

The Poison Center provides vital education for medical professionals and those in training.

In 2025, there were 60 lectures provided for healthcare professionals across the state. The Poison Center staff conducted 220advanced toxicological training opportunities for fellows, students, medical residents, other staff members, and interested non-staff health care professionals. Additionally, 56 medical residents, fellows, students, and pharmacists received on-site toxicology training.

The Minnesota Regional Poison Center partners with Regions Hospital to facilitate a Medical Toxicology Fellowship program.

Learn More

Complete our free online poison prevention training program. It is available at training.mnpoison.org and helps teach about poison safety and using the Poison Center as a free resource.

Visit our website at mnpoison.org for more poison prevention information and to order materials free of charge.

Follow Us on Social Media

The Minnesota Regional Poison Center used social media as a way to share information.

In 2025, our interactions on Facebook was 1,906 with 1,148 followers.
On Instagram, our reach was 1,537 with 134 followers.
Our X page had 1,426 followers with 586 posts for the year.
We had 135 followers on LinkedIn.

We use a customer management system to further information reach to the public and our partners.

  • LinkedIn: @Minnesota Regional Poison Center
  • X: @MNpoisoncenter
  • Facebook: @MNpoisoncenter
  • Instagram: @MNpoisoncenter

A PDF version of the information above is also available:
Minnesota Regional Poison Center 2025 Annual Report (PDF)

Need help accessing these materials?

Some resources on this page are provided as PDF documents. If you need these materials in an alternative or accessible format, please call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 or contact us—we will provide assistance.