Drugs and alcohol poisoning caused most accidental deaths in Western Australia

More West Australians have died from accidental poisonings from using drugs and alcohol than anywhere else in the country.

The latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed accidental poisoning accounted for 8.7 deaths per 100,000 in WA in 2021-22 — more than 10 deaths a week.

Accidental poisoning deaths in WA constitute deaths involving both illicit and prescribed drugs including alcohol, antiepileptic, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism, and psychotropic drugs as well as narcotics and hallucinogens, biological substances, medicaments, and other unspecified drugs.

Narcotics and hallucinogens, including opioids such as codeine, morphine and heroin, accounted for the most deaths in the State with 1.5 deaths per 100,000 – about 40 deaths in 2021-22.

However, accidental deaths from narcotics and hallucinogens were down almost 23 per cent compared to the five-year average.

Narcotics, opioids and hallucinogens also caused hospitalisations mostly in those aged 15 and over.

Alcohol use was the only type of accidental poisoning death to increase in WA with 24 per cent more deaths since 2017-18 — approximately 34 deaths in 2021-22.

There was a total of 1567 accidental poisoning deaths in Australia in 2021-22, making up more than 10 per cent of all injury deaths.

WA recorded the third highest amount of hospitalisations for accidental poisonings in the country — behind Queensland and the Northern Territory — with more than 3180 people hospitalised in the State between 2021 to 2023.

The City of Stirling had the most hospitalisations in WA with 276 people needing hospital care — more than two people a day — within those same two years.

Stirling had the fifth most hospitalisations in the country.

Wanneroo also had a high amount of hospitalisations with 225 people followed by Perth (210), Swan (174), and Joondalup (161).

There was a total of 17,721 hospitalisations for accidental poisonings in the country between 2021 to 2023 with one in 10 people spending time in the ICU.

Eight out of 10 people in hospital for accidental poisoning also needed a ventilator.

Children aged 0 to 4 have consistently had the highest rates of hospitalisations for accidental poisoning over the last decade with 77 kids per 100,000 needing a hospital stay in 2022-23.

The most common causes of accidental poisoning in young children involve pharmaceutical substances, which can include pain killers.

Accidental poisoning hospitalisations for under five year olds has fallen by 18 per cent since 2017-18 except for poisoning caused by unspecified chemicals and noxious substances, such as paints and corrosive chemicals, which has increased by 12 per cent in five years.