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Calls to U.S. poison centres have increased since the coronavirus landed stateside in January, with a sharp increase in March during the onslaught of lockdowns, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC looked at the number of calls from January to March of this year and compared it to the same period in 2019 and 2018.

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The health authority found that calls about exposures to chemicals and disinfectants increased by 20 per cent from 2019 to 2020, with children five years old or younger making up the majority of the victims.

The report gave two case examples. One was an adult woman who heard on the news that people should clean all recently purchased groceries before eating. The woman then filled her sink with a mixture of 10 per cent bleach solution, vinegar and hot water to soak her produce.