Many young children get hospitalized due to poisoning caused by laundry detergent pods. Latest study suggests that families with young children should opt for traditional detergent to pods.
Laundry detergent pods have received high popularity in many countries as users just need to toss them into washing machine without the need to measure detergent powder or liquid. Even though detergent pods are convenient to use, it poses poisoning risks to young children.
Researchers at the Nationwide Children's Hospital revealed that the poison control centers in the U.S. received more than 17,000 reports of children younger than 6 years being exposed to laundry pods in 2012 and 2013. Cases also involved children inhaling or swallowing pods that contain harmful chemicals for humans. Over 750 children were also hospitalized due to detergent pods in 2012 and 2013 and one child died after swallowing a pod.
About 66 percent of the reported cases involved 1- or 2-year old children. Most of the cases involved children putting the detergent pods in their mouth.
Marcel J. Casavant, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children's Hospital and medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, who is also the co-author of the study revealed that as the pods are small and colorful, they appear to be like candies. Children can break them open and swallow the harmful pods, get their eyes exposed to the harmful chemicals and more in a matter of a few seconds.
The study suggests that about 48 percent of children vomited the pod after swallowing them. In about 13 percent of the cases, children experienced choking or coughing, 11 percent of the cases experienced eye irritation or pain, 7 percent complained of lethargy or drowsiness and 7 percent got conjunctivitis or red eyes.
One of the laundry detergent pod manufacturers in the U.S. has altered the packaging of its product in 2013, which includes non-see through containers. The company has also issued a warning label on the container as an added precaution for the users. However, most of the other manufacturers still use see-through packaging and containers that can be easily opened by children.
Gary Smith, the director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and a senior author of the study, calls for safety standards to be implemented to detergent pods.
"A national safety standard is needed to make sure that all pod makers adopt safer packaging and labeling," says Smith. "Parents of young children should use traditional detergent instead of detergent pods."
The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics.
