Activated charcoal in the home: Helpful and important or simply a distraction?

In the December 2001 issue of Pediatrics, Spiller and Rodgers present data showing that parents were able to administer a dose of activated charcoal to their children, at home, in a timely manner after an unintentional ingestion. Activated charcoal has long been preferred for decontamination in the emergency department. Some readers may be quick to anticipate substitution of activated charcoal for syrup of ipecac in the home. However, before we start a discussion of replacing syrup of ipecac with activated charcoal in the home, we need to finish the discussion about the place of home decontamination in pediatric health care and whether we should expend additional public education efforts or limited anticipatory guidance time on it.