Child poisoning deaths spiked in pandemic from narcotics, bleach and batteries
CBSN
The pandemic saw a spike in young children accidentally poisoned by products found at home — including bleach, coin-sized batteries and narcotics, federal officials said in a report out this week.
On average, 31 kids under the age of 5 die of poisoning each year, a figure that has fallen 80% from 1972, when 216 children died, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
But, after decades of falling fatality rates, the past several years have seen a reversal.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.