Laundry Detergent Pods Are A Serious Poison Risk For Children

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
While laundry detergent pods have become increasingly popular due largely to their convenience, a new study is cautioning parents that the products could also present a series poison risk for children under the age of six.
In research published Monday by the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Gary Smith from the Center for Injury Research and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and his colleagues reported that from 2012 through 2013, poison control centers in the US received reports of over 17,230 youngsters swallowing, inhaling or otherwise being exposed to the chemicals found in these products.
According to the researchers, that’s an average of one child per hour, and while Associated Press (AP) Medical Writer Lindsay Tanner noted that most of the youngsters were not seriously harmed, more than 700 had to be hospitalized, with seizures or coma among the most serious complications. One child even died, and the study authors said the potential poisoning risk emphasizes the need for laundry pod manufacturers to make the packaging safer.
“The products contain concentrated liquid laundry soap and became widely available in the US two years ago. Some are multicolored and may look enticing to young children. Poisoning or injuries including mouth, throat and eye burns can occur when kids burst the capsules or put them in their mouths,” Tanner said. Some manufacturers have already made changes to packaging and labels, leading to a slight reduction in poison center calls, the study found.

Dr. Smith, the lead author of the study, told Reuters that the findings “caught us by surprise… I was aware of the case reports, but I haven’t seen anyone pull together the numbers.” He added that “the good news is that half of these exposures were trivial,” but that if the kids “swallow it and they swallow enough of it, that’s when we get these serious symptoms.”
“This is an age group that has newfound mobility. They’re curious and they don’t sense danger,” Dr. Smith said, noting that the children may believe the pods are candy or are filled with juice. He said that he and his colleagues saw “a very broad spectrum” of symptoms, and there were “severe symptoms that we haven’t seen in the past with traditional laundry detergent that we’re now seeing with these new pods,” suggesting the liquid they contain is more powerful and more dangerous than regular soap.
Paul Ziobro of The Wall Street Journal contacted Proctor & Gamble (P&G), the company that manufacturers Tide Pods, but the company declined to comment on the issue, referring calls to the American Cleaning Institute trade organization. The institute said that companies had been working since 2012 to reduce the number of these incidents, and Ziobro noted that P&G replaced clear Tide Pods packages with opaque ones last year.
“Sun Products, maker of All Mighty Pacs, also has made changes to its product, including adding safety language to the front of packages and changing to opaque containers. In addition, it came out with a childproof tub now available at many stores, according to a spokeswoman,” he added. Henkel AG, maker of the Purex brand, did not respond to The Wall Street Journal’s requests for comment on the issue, according to Ziobro.
Last month, research published in the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) issued a warning that liquid laundry and dishwasher detergent pods could burst and send detergent into the mouth, nose and eyes of children when squeezed or bitten into. The researchers cautioned that the products should be kept away from young kids due to the risk of significant corneal injury.
Dr. Marcel J. Casavant, a co-author of the new study and chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center echoed those sentiments, noting that “it can take just a few seconds for children to grab them, break them open, and swallow the toxic chemicals they contain, or get the chemicals in their eyes.”
Likewise, Dr. Smith added, “It is not clear that any laundry detergent pods currently available are truly child resistant; a national safety standard is needed to make sure that all pod makers adopt safer packaging and labeling. Parents of young children should use traditional detergent instead of detergent pods.”
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