Medicine: Beware the Snake

For the child who is too young to read, the word "Poison" on a medicine bottle or a cleaning-fluid can is no protection. Neither is the once-popular, now little-used, device of the skull and crossbones; children either don't know what it means, or they associate it with exciting TV programs about pirates. Last week the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association began a statewide campaign to lessen some of the childhood hazards in a chemically fertile age by enlisting the aid of the kids.

Through neighborhood drugstores, the association distributed hundreds of thousands of sheets of yellow gummed stickers. Printed in red above the inescapable word "Poison" is a vicious-looking, four-fanged cobra, poised to strike. Most youngsters, the association reasons, are warned against snakes early in life. They should be able to recognize the symbol and heed its warning. The recommendation is that stickers be put not only on dangerous medicines, but on containers for such poisons, among others, as ammonia, antifreeze, bleaches and disinfectants containing chlorine, gasoline, insect and rat poisons, kerosene and lead paints.

To make sure that the lesson sticks with the label, mothers are advised to take their kids on a tour of the house and let the youngsters themselves have the fun of pasting on the labels.