Poisonings In Washington Racked Up Some Devastating Stats

Whatever happened to the Mr. Yuk stickers?

Is it still a thing? Does the younger generation even know what it is or how many lives that little guy may have saved?

Those stickers used to be everywhere, and nowadays, I can't remember the last time I've seen one.

If you don't know what Mr. Yuk was, it was a little green sticker created by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to help warn children of poisons.

It had the opposite of a happy face, showing disgust, tongue hanging out, was green, and depending on the sticker, it gave the poison control phone number or said something like "Stay away."

You can still get Mr. Yuk stickers by reaching out to UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, but otherwise, the sticker and its campaign is not widely used.

If it was, do you think Washington would have had over 7,000 deaths by poisoning between 2016 & 2020?

Maybe? Maybe not?

Deaths from accidental poisoning could have been avoided. Still, for other deaths where autopsies showed multiple substances in the person's system, or 'Psychostimulants' that had been abused, those people took direct action. I doubt any warning sticker meant for kids would have persuaded them otherwise.

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Data from the Centers for Disease Control was used for a study by Gruber Law Offices (personal injury attorney in Wisconsin) to determine deaths by poisonings in the United States and where each state ranked.

Washington ranked 32nd in the five-year timeframe, with 7,071 deaths reported (2020 being the most deadly year). The worst state was Nebraska, with West Virginia having the fewest deaths caused by poisons.