If you threw those colourful detergent pods into a bowl of candy, they wouldn’t look out of place.
It’s that candy-like quality that’s causing growing concerns in households. More and more children are ingesting the bright, highly-concentrated cleaners, as they’re being mistaken for candy.
Despite the warning labels, a new study published in the May 2016 edition of Pediatrics claims U.S. poison control centres received 62,254 calls in 2013-14 for kids under six who had eaten or was exposed to the colourful packets.
“It’s a different animal. These are much more dangerous than the laundry detergent you’re used to,” said Henry Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center and the study’s co-author. Spiller says that these packets are much more potent than liquid or granulated detergent, due to different ingredients used in detergent pods.
“We’ve had to intubate these patients. We’ve had several fatalities in children,” he continued.
Over the course of the two-year study, two deaths were associated to laundry detergent packets exposure. With children who ingested the laundry detergent pods, there were 17 cases of coma, six cases of respiratory arrest, four cases of pulmonary edema and two cases of cardiac arrest.
Detergent companies have tried to make their packets less appealing, and not so much like candy, but the brighter colours will seemingly always draw attention.
“But we still literally see 10,000 (in hospital) a year,” said Spiller.
He suggests that families with young children and toddlers should opt for liquid laundry or dishwasher detergency rather than pods.
“If you do have these in your home, please make sure they’re locked up high and have the poison control number available, because these really are a problem.”
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