A study of storage, child behavioral traits, and mother's knowledge of toxicology in 52 poisoned families and 52 comparison families

This paper casts serious doubts on widely used countermeasures against poisoning - the safe storage of toxic products and the education of parents as to the toxicity of products commonly used in the home. The significant variable in childhood poisonings, according to these investigators, is the characteristic behaviour of the child. Like many other studies of the same general type, however, the present one raises two questions, one having to do with methodology, the other with the implications of the findings.