Toll-free telephone numbers to call for pesticide poisoning information now are available to physicians and other health care professionals in the continental United States.
Physicians in South Carolina should call (800) 9220193. Those in the 47 other contiguous states must dial (800) 845-7633.
The Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, serves as headquarters for the Pesticide Telecommunications Network, one of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) three "centers of excellence" for pesticide research. The other two centers—which do not have toll-free numbers—are at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and Colorado State University, Fort Collins.
The medical university's Pesticide Epidemiological Studies Center, directed by S. Hope Sandifer, MD, and its Drug and Poison Information Center, under Harold Trammel, DP, are cooperating in the Charleston-based network. Trammel and other clinical pharmacologists staff the telephones seven days per week, 24 hours per day, and Sandifer and other clinicians are on call to provide