Childhood poisoning has been identified as a priority area by both the Australian Federal government and the Queensland State government. It is a major contributor to childhood injury, but there have been few identifiable changes in presentation rates in the past 20 years. Similarly, in the United Kingdom childhood poisoning is a significant contributor to emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. 1 Based upon comparison of admission rates, paracetamol ingestion and then presentation to a regional centre have been proposed as risk factors for admission. 2 It is not clear whether these admission rates reflect a greater number of poisonings with paracetamol in country areas or a greater likelihood of admission if presenting following poisoning. Poisoning in country areas may be more severe and as a result have a greater need for in-hospital care. Although mortality rates are low, paediatric poisoning is a common cause for presentation to emergency departments and has significant morbidity. To determine if increased admission rates reflected an increased risk of admission or increased presentation rate of ingestional poisoning, we performed a study of all such presentations to emergency departments in South Brisbane, Mackay and Mt Isa over a 2-year period from January 1998 to December 1999. METHODS A search was performed of the Queensland Injury Surveil- lance Unit (QISU) database. Under a 3-year contract with Queensland Health, QISU obtains injury-related data from Queensland hospitals and manages, analyses and disseminates this information. The QISU database has been reviewed by the Mater Children’s Hospital Ethics committee; all QISU data are obtained under strict confidentiality guidelines and all iden- tifying information is removed before the data are placed in the QISU database. Computerized Queensland hospital emergency departments can provide Australian National Data Standards for Injury Surveillance (NDS-IS) data as an electronic download from emergency department computer systems. 3 Collecting emergency departments without computer systems provide data on standardized forms, the content of which conforms with NDS-IS, which are then coded and entered by QISU staff. Both the electronic download and the QISU entered data are stored on a computer database (InjurEzy) and are used to prepare standard or individually tailored reports for interested parties such as the media, government, work safety organisations and individuals. QISU currently holds injury data from 1989, although the coverage and the amount of detail varies with the year and demographic location. Those patients whose postal code of address was in a defined region of South Brisbane, Mackay or Mt Isa were iden- tified within this dataset. South Brisbane was selected because it was a region of Brisbane exclusively serviced by hospitals that collected data for QISU. The study variables were age, gender, time to presentation following ingestion, place of ingestion, toxin ingested and aboriginality, and the primary outcome variable was admission to hospital. The ingested toxins were also analysed by classes of toxin: paracetamol containing preparations, rodenticides, pesticides, chemicals, caustic agents, sedatives, antihistamines/cough and cold prep- arations, plants and mushrooms, iron, essential oils, miscella- neous medicinal and recreational agents, and unknown toxins. J. Paediatr. Child Health (2001) 37, 446–450 Childhood poisoning in Queensland: An analysis of presentation and admission rates DM REITH, 1 WR PITT 2 and R HOCKEY 2 1 Mater Chidren’s Hospital, South Brisbane and 2 Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit, Queensland, Australia Objective: To determine the presentation rates for paediatric poisoning by ingestion and the determinants of hospital admission. Methodology: Cross-sectional survey using an injury surveillance database from emergency departments in South Brisbane, Mackay and Mt Isa, Queensland, from January 1998 to December 1999. There were 1516 children aged 0–14 years who presented following ingestional poisoning. Results: The presentation rates for poisoning were 690, 40 and 67 per 100 000 population aged 0–4, 5–9 and 10–14 years, respectively. The admission rates to hospital for poisoning were 144, 14 and 22 per 100 000 population aged 0–4, 5–9 and 10–14 years, respectively. Although presentation rates for poisoning were higher in the rural centres the admission rates were disproportionately high for the 0–4 years age group. The agents most frequently ingested were paracetamol, Dimetapp®, rodenticides and essential oils. Conclusion: There is a need to design and implement interventions aimed at reducing poison exposures and unnecessary hospital admissions in the 0–4 years age group. Key words: incidence; ingestion; paracetamol; poisoning. Correspondence: Dr David Reith, Principal Research Fellow, Mater Children’s Emergency Department, Mater Misericordiae Public Hospitals, Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, Qld 4101, Australia. Fax: +61 7 3840 1962; email: D.Reith@medicine.uq.edu.au Accepted for publication 30 January 2001.