chemistry

National Poisons Information Service

National Poisons Information Service is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Poisons Information Service rather than just read about it. In short: The National Poisons Information Service is an information service commissioned originally by Public Health England, and currently by the UK Health Security Agency as its successor agency, on behalf of the UK health departments. Poisoning accounts for 1% of NHS admissions.

Key takeaways

National Poisons Information Service belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Poisons Information Service to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Poisons Information Service from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Poisons Information Service is an information service commissioned originally by Public Health England, and currently by the UK Health Security Agency as its successor agency, on behalf of the UK health departments. Poisoning accounts for 1% of NHS admissions. Pesticides used in agriculture (particularly organophosphorus insecticides) are extremely toxic, but 87% of around 120,000 annual poisoning cases in the UK take place in the home.

History In August 1962 the Ministry of Health announced it was forming a poisons information service. This was after the Emergency Treatment in Hospital of Cases of Acute Poisoning published by the Central Health Services Council in March 1962. Many more household chemicals were on the market, and the chemical composition was only known to the manufacturers. 4,000 to 5,000 people each year were lethally poisoned, with 6,085 in 1962; however, many of the deaths were (non-accidental) suicides. It started in 1963 by Dr Roy Goulding at the Medical Toxicology Unit of Guy's Hospital, with a staff of 65. By the late 1960s, recreational drugs were presenting a widespread danger. Other centres were soon set up in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff. UKTIS was based in Newcastle from 1995.

Structure It has four units in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Newcastle. It is a member of the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists.

NPIS Birmingham Unit (West Midlands Poisons Unit), City Hospital, Birmingham - Dr Sally Bradberry NPIS Cardiff Unit, Llandough Hospital - Dr Laurence Gray NPIS Edinburgh Unit (Scottish Poisons Information Bureau), Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - Dr. Aravindan Veiraiah. NPIS Newcastle Unit, Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre, Newcastle University - Professor Simon Thomas NPIS Birmingham has the NPIS Product Data Centre, provided by manufacturer's information, and deals with around 2,300 companies. NPIS supports (24 hours) NHS Direct (for England and Wales) and (24 hours) NHS 24 for Scotland. Northern Ireland has its Northern Ireland Regional Medicines and Poisons Information Service in Belfast, and NPIS is used when this is not available. The Republic of Ireland uses the service, via the TOXBASE database, which is used by the country's National Poisons Information Centre. Of all UK nations, Wales has the highest proportionate number of enquiries to the service, with Northern Ireland the fewest. Within England, there is a distribution of higher number of enquiries to the service in the north than the south, with NHS North East having the highest and NHS South of England having the least proportionate number of enquiries. The vast majority (95%) of enquiries come from A&E departments. Around 65% of poisoning is from pharmaceuticals (paracetamol, ibuprofen, citalopram, diazepam and zopiclone) and 15% from household chemicals (detergents, bleach, and isopropanol). There are very dangerous chemicals stored in most UK kitchens. Wednesday is the busiest day of the week for enquiries, with the fewest at the weekend.

Function The NPIS operates a 24-hour telephone advice service and internet database TOXBASE (www.toxbase.org for registered healthcare departments only). TOXBASE is free for UK NHS departments, and available by subscription to departments outside the UK NHS. The TOXBASE app is also available for Apple and Android devices. The app is free for individual NHS users. The TOXBASE database contains information on approximately 17,000 products, together with generic advice on the management of poisoning. In excess of 1.5 million product accesses are made to the database each year. Most of the accesses are made by A&E staff. TOXBASE is not available for public access, and much of its information is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. NHS 111, NHS 24 and NHS Direct all use the TOXBASE database. In the UK poisons information can also be found in the British National Formulary.

See also College of Emergency Medicine DrugScope Porton Down

References

External links NPIS TOXBASE UKTIS UKMi EAPCCT

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Poisons Information Service

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Poisons Information Service claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Poisons Information Service before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Poisons Information Service ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Poisons Information Service

In research: National Poisons Information Service appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Poisons Information Service in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Poisons Information Service is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biochemistry databases, British organisations established in 1963, Drugs in the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Poisons Information Service outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “National Poisons Information Service” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study National Poisons Information Service in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Poisons Information Service means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Poisons Information Service out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Poisons Information Service in simple terms?

Why does National Poisons Information Service matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Poisons Information Service?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Poisons Information Service.