New Jersey Poison Control Needs Your Help!

In January 2010, the transition team for New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie recommended that Christie eliminate the $569,000 in state funding for the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System.

Part of the rationale for recommending that cut was that NJPIES was established in 1982, prior to the Internet, and that most doctors and hospitals search the Internet directly to find poison information.

In fact, that’s demonstrably not the case. Of the nearly 2.5 million poison exposure calls made to U.S. poison centers in 2008, 16 percent came from a health care facility, meaning doctors and health care providers frequently relied on the expertise of poison centers when confronted with a poison exposure.

New Jersey managed to make it through the first round of cuts, but the center has months before it will know if it has truly survived intact. If you're concerned about the future of NJPIES, write Gov. Christie here or sign the online petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/NJPIES/petition.html

It takes only a few minutes to sign this petition.  We can't always rely on someone else to sign petitions and fight for causes.  The only way to know for sure that your voice is being heard is to do it yourself.