Poisoning from pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, pesticides, chemical products and natural toxins is a significant global public health problem. WHO seeks to build capacity in countries to deal with these problems, and an important area of activity is promoting the establishment and strengthening of poisons centres.

A poisons centre is a specialized service that advises on the diagnosis and management of poisoning and collects data to inform poisons prevention activities. Poisons centres play an important role in identifying and assessing the toxic risks in a population, e.g. from emerging toxicological hazards – this is called toxicovigilance. Poisons centres also collect data to improve knowledge about the human health effects of chemicals. Poisons centres contribute to the national capacities required under the International Health Regulations for surveillance, preparedness and response for public health events involving chemical agents.

WHO maintains a global directory of poisons centres. To support countries to establish and/or strengthen poisons centres, WHO has developed guidance and training materials (Training manual - trainee's version and Training manual - trainer's version) on poisons centres and poisons centre operations and on analytical toxicology for low-resource settings.

WHO also facilitates the provision of training placements at well-established poisons centres and, through its poisons centre network, it fosters links between poisons centres.

WHO has developed tools to facilitate the collection of internationally harmonized data on poisoning in the form of a multilingual controlled terminology and classifications, as well as materials for documenting pesticide exposures.