Presenter Profile
Melissa Blumberg, MD, MPH
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania
Department of Emergency Medicine
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Melissa Blumberg, MD, MPH is a pediatric emergency medicine attending physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and her pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Nemours Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on injury epidemiology and health equity in pediatric emergency care.
Presentations
Health Equity and Unintentional Pediatric Cannabis Ingestion
Amy Thompson, MD, MS
Elizabeth Lendrum, MD
Brandon George, PhD, MS
Wendy Pomerantz, MD, MS
With cannabis legalization, concentrated and edible forms have become widely available, leading to increased unintentional ingestions in children. These toxic ingestions raise concerns for neglect and often prompt social service involvement, yet data on health equity in managing such cases is limited. This study examined sociodemographic factors and the incidence of social work (SW) consultation, child protective services (CPS) reporting, and safe disposition planning (SDP) among young children with unintentional cannabis ingestions.
A retrospective cohort study at two level 1 trauma centers analyzed pediatric emergency department (PED) records of children aged 0-6 who tested positive for THC from June 2016 to September 2024
Among 266 cases, most children were under age 2 (58.3%), male (52.3%), white (47.0%), English-speaking (98.9%), non-Hispanic (91.7%), and publicly insured (71.4%). Ingestions increased over time, with 51.8% occurring in the last two years (2023-2024). Edibles (51.1%) from a primary guardian (40.2%) were the most common source. Most cases (83.5%) were triaged as high-risk, with 41.7% evaluated in a trauma bay. Hospital admission was common (82.0%), with 25.2% of admitted children requiring critical care. SW (95.5%) and CPS (80.1%) were involved in most cases. No significant relationship was found between deprivation index and SW (p=0.520), CPS (p=0.405), or discharge disposition (p=0.144–0.256).
The rising incidence of pediatric cannabis ingestion highlights significant toxicity risks to young children and an increasing burden on pediatric healthcare systems, with high utilization of social service evaluation regardless of socioeconomic status.
1. Cannabis ingestions in young children are rising post legalization.
2. Cannabis ingestions in young children are highly toxic and require high resource utilization.
3. Cannabis ingestions in young children commonly prompt social work consultation and child protective service reporting, regardless of socioeconomic status.