Newspaper impact on poison center exposure call volume

News media plays an important role in disseminating health information. Although media influence on consumer behavior is well documented, news media effect on poison center (PC) call volume is not well studied despite the suggestion of some authors that an "epidemic of anxiety" naturally follows extensive news coverage of toxicologic issues. The recent surge in news coverage of ephedra-containing supplements (ECS) provided an opportunity for a pilot examination of a regional poison center's ECS exposure volume. The electronic archives of two nationally read newspapers, the New York Times (NYT) and USA Today (USA), and a regionally read newspaper, Chicago Tribune (CT), were searched for published stories where ECS was the subject. Phone calls to a regional PC (annual call volume >90,000) were examined for all ECS exposures. The study period was divided into two intervals: 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after the highly publicized sudden death of a major league baseball player from an ECS on 2/17/2003. ECS was the subject of five news reports (NYT 4, USA 0, CT 1) in the 6-week interval prior to 2/17/2003; ECS was the subject of 98 reports (NYT 54, USA 22, CT 22) in the following 6-week interval. Two ECS exposures were reported to the PC in the 6-week interval prior to 2/17/2003; no ECS exposures were reported to the PC in the following 6-week interval. Despite a surge in newspaper coverage detailing the hazards of ECS following the death of a high profile athlete, there was no associated surge in reported ECS exposures to a regional PC during that same time interval. Further scrutiny of this apparent lack of newspaper effect is warranted.