Service Area

The West Texas Regional Poison Center (WTRPC) is located right on the US/Mexico Border in El Paso, Texas, and serves the 36 counties of West Texas.  We are available 24-hours a day, 365 days a year in both English and Spanish.  Together with the other 5 poison centers in Texas, we make up the Texas Poison Center Network (TPCN).  The WTRPC is available to provide Spanish Poison Center Services for the entire State of Texas 24/7.  Calls from our region may be answered by any of the other 5 Poison Centers when all of our lines are busy.  This system allows us to provide prompt service for all Texas residents and allows for emergent surge capacity in case of an emergency in any of our regions.  All Poison Centers in Texas are equally trained and Certified by the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC).

The WTRPC service region is made up largely of rural communities where immediate access to healthcare facilities and providers is limited. The region covers 24% of Texas' land mass with only 7% of the State's population. Poison prevention and poison education programs provide an additional preventive service that might otherwise be overlooked. It must be noted that bilingual services in English and Spanish are essential to attain our goals of providing comprehensive poison center services for our citizens. In accordance with 2000 census figures, in four Texas counties that border Mexico, there are approximately 609,843 people (41.1% of persons 5-17 years old and 49.3% of persons 18 years old and over) that do not speak English "very well." The need for bilingual (English-Spanish) education and poison prevention resources on the border is a health imperative.

Our West Texas region is unique in that our daily population levels increase significantly due to the influx of people crossing our international border. Just minutes from the heart of downtown El Paso is one of the most dynamic cities in the Republic of Mexico-Ciudad Juarez. The El Paso-Juarez port of entry is one of the busiest in the world with over 42 million legal north-bound border crossings into the United States each year. This translates to 6,122,025 pedestrian crossings; 580,200 commercial trucks and buses (870,300 people); and 15,747,393 private vehicles (36,219,003 people) per year. It appears that the population of the city of El Paso is understated due to continual influx of people. With this international traffic comes the threat of more dangerous poison exposures. The availability of medications in Juarez which can be acquired without a prescription leads to the potential for more serious exposures from medication misuse or therapeutic errors. The commerce between these two cities also increases the likelihood of exposure to hazardous materials. As we begin this new century, there will be significant increases in the need for poison prevention and exposure management services from our WTRPC.