Nearly 5,000 Americans will die this year because of accidental encounters with toxic chemicals(l). Equally startling is the estimate that for every death due to poisoning in the United States, there will be over 200 nonfatal poisoning episodes(2). Two out of every three poisoning cases involve children under the age of five years. In fact, Dr. Jay Arena, one of our foremost clinical toxicologists, maintains that acute poisoning is now the single most frequently encountered pediatric emergency in America(2). This appalling fact is attributable to the natural and fearless exploratory behavior of young children and, more important, to adult carelessness. Nearly half of all poisoning cases involve medicinal agents(3). Aspirin leads the list of agents as the most frequently encountered, despite the spreading use of "child-proof" contain-