Subsection 4: Poison control centres.

Poison control centres are responsible for responding, particularly in emergencies, to any request for risk assessment and any request for an opinion or advice concerning the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of human poisoning, whether accidental or deliberate, individual or collective, acute or otherwise, caused by any product or substance of natural or synthetic origin, available on the market or present in the environment. In the case of adverse reactions linked…

In accordance with article L. 6141-4, the centres participate in the emergency medical aid system provided for in article L. 6311-1; they may be called upon and intervene, at the request of the competent authorities, in emergency situations presenting a danger to public health.

The tasks defined in articles D. 6141-37 and D. 6141-38 are carried out around the clock.

Poison control centres are involved in toxicovigilance. Their toxicovigilance missions are defined in article R. 1340-5.

The centres are involved in teaching and research in clinical toxicology. They train their departmental correspondents and update their knowledge. They participate in the prevention of poisoning and in public health education.

Poison control centres shall have access, at their request, to anonymised data held by the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail and the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé as part of the vigilance systems relating to the products mentioned in Articles L. 5311-1, L. 5141-1 and R. 1323-1 and, secondly, to data from the information system mentioned in…

Depending on their size and the diversity of their activities, the centres are organised into services or departments, or into separate structures. They include an emergency response unit operating under the conditions set out in articles D. 6141-45 and D. 6141-46, as well as a toxicovigilance unit. They may also, depending on resources and local situations, include a care unit for intoxicated patients, a consultation unit, an analytical toxicology laboratory…

Each poison control centre operates under the responsibility of a university professor – hospital practitioner, or a university lecturer – hospital practitioner or a hospital practitioner with experience in clinical toxicology. The head of the centre devotes all of his or her time to hospital work. He/she is responsible for the general running of the centre, personally assumes the technical and scientific management of the centre and ensures the ongoing…

The telephone answering service is manned 24 hours a day by a doctor who has undergone training in clinical toxicology and telephone answering and who may not be entrusted with other duties while on call. This doctor may be assisted by other doctors, pharmacists and postgraduate medical and pharmaceutical students placed under his responsibility, provided that they have undergone the necessary prior training, the content of which is defined by…

The centres have sufficient premises, allocated exclusively to them, and the material resources to enable them to carry out their duties around the clock. In particular, they have : 1° Telephone reception facilities comprising lines accessible to the public, lines reserved exclusively for liaison with the authorities, with other poison control centres and with the body referred to in article L. 4411-4 of the Labour Code, and lines used for…