14 DAY TRIAL // From 2012 through 2013, as many as 17,230 cases of kids who needed medical attention after being poisoned by laundry detergent pods were documented in the US alone, say researchers with the Nationwide Children's Hospital.
Hence, it is now argued that laundry detergent pods are a threat to young children and that families with kids should stick to buying traditional detergent, at least until their offspring are at least 6 years old.
Why detergent pods are a risk to children
As detailed by the specialists who conducted this investigation, about two-thirds of the US children who were poisoned by laundry detergent pods from 2012 through 2013 were 1 or 2 years old. At this age, kids are fairly curious.
What's more, they tend to put all sort of things into their mouth, looking to gain a better understanding of their surroundings. Should such young kids decide to put a laundry detergent pod into their mouth, they risk swallowing a large amount of chemicals.
“Laundry detergent pods are small, colorful, and may look like candy or juice to a young child,” MD and a co-author of the study Marcel J. Casavant said in a statement, as cited by EurekAlert.
“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,” the Nationwide Children's Hospital researcher added.
Just how big a threat are detergent pods?
It is understood that, of the 17,230 cases of children poisoned by detergent pods documented in 2012 and 2013 in the US, as many as 769 involved kids who needed to be hospitalized. What's more, one child died after being exposed to a significant amount of chemicals.
Coughing or choking, eye pain or irritation, and drowsiness or lethargy were reported in 13%, 11%, and 7% of cases, respectively. Red eye or conjunctivitis was also documented in 7% of these kids, and about 48% of them vomited.
In light of these findings, specialists recommend that, at least until the laundry detergent pods marketed in the US are sold in safer packaging that children cannot open on their own, families with young kids opt for buying traditional laundry detergent, which is considerably less toxic.
“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,” said specialist Gary Smith. Furthermore, “Parents of young children should use traditional detergent instead of detergent pods.”
Even so, the laundry detergent used in one household or another should be kept in a locked cabinet that kids do not have access to. Besides, it's important that the laundry detergent be stored immediately after use, the researchers go on to stress.
