JOHNSON CITY – Many children throughout the region will be building gingerbread houses and eating candy as part of their holiday celebrations; however, the visual similarities between candy and over-the-counter medicine can present dangerous health concerns from improper ingestion.

Pharmacy students at East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy are seeking to raise awareness about this issue during the holiday season.

Recently, they made gingerbread houses out of both medicine and candy, on display in the college’s lobby, to help show how easily the two can be confused. The display features a game that visitors can play to try to guess which colorful pieces are actually medicine. This activity is part of the pharmacy students’ service to the community through health care education.

“Our mission is to raise awareness for potential hazards of common household items and easily-accessible medications to improve the safety and quality of life for both children and adults in our area,” said Regan Bell, from La Follette, Tennessee, co-chair of the Over-The-Counter Medicine Safety committee student organization (part of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists) that sponsored the event.

“Hopefully, this will be a great reminder that as pharmacists, we are responsible for educating our patients on the similarities in medicines and common household items that could be commonly mistaken as something that you could eat or drink, proper medication storage, how to read labels, what devices should be used to measure liquid medications and how to make the right over-the-counter product choices,” said Bell.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) reports managing on average 600,000 cases of medicine misuse involving children to teens annually. In addition, every year over 20,000 children need medical attention due to medicine mistakes or misuse.

“We hope that by reaching out to our community through events like this, we can reduce that number significantly,” said Kaitlyn Phillips, from Erwin, Tennessee, chair of the committee.

If you experience a poison emergency or need poison information, contact the Poison Help hotline at 1-800-222-1222, which connects callers to their local poison control center anywhere in the United States and territories. Callers receive free, confidential, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year from toxicology specialists, including nurses, pharmacists, physicians and poison information providers. The poison control center will call 911 if necessary; however, if the patient is not breathing or unresponsive, call 911 first.

In addition, www.poisonhelp.org is an interactive online tool that provides more information. AAPCC and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) work together to ensure the number and poison centers are used appropriately.

Learn more about Gatton College of Pharmacy at www.etsu.edu/pharmacy.