Keeping Kids Safe From Liquid Detergent Packets
Steps are being taken to make sure everything that kids put in their mouths is safe.
Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo counties), Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), and Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) introduced the Detergent Poisoning and Child Safety Act (Detergent PACS Act) during National Poison Prevention Week, featuring a mother whose child ended up in intensive care after biting into a liquid detergent packet, a pediatrician, and a consumer advocate.
Liquid detergent packets are popular, convenient, and dangerous because they deliver powerful chemicals in colorful, bite-sized packages that look like candy. From 2012 to 2013 the National Poison Data System received 17,230 calls involving children exposed to chemicals by the packets. Of those, 769 required hospitalization for issues including seizures, vomiting blood, fluid in the lungs, dangerously slow heartbeats, respiratory arrest, gastric burn, and comas, in addition to the death of a 7-month-old boy.
Many household products such as medicine and cleaning agents already require child-resistant packaging. The PACS Act would expand those CPSC rules to cover liquid detergent packets. It would require stronger, safer policies that cover the design and color of the packets, so that they aren’t as attractive to children; the composition of the packets, so that the consequences of exposure aren’t so severe; and the adequacy of the warning labels, to properly inform consumers about the risk.
“It’s incredibly dangerous to make toxic, concentrated detergent ‘bite-sized’ and ‘colorful,” said Speier. “The science is clear: this product is hazardous to young children. It’s just common sense that liquid detergent packets should be subject to the same safety measures as other dangerous household products, like medicine.”
“Of course parents should do all that they can to keep laundry detergent packets out of the reach of children, but companies can do much more to address the rising number of poisonings head on,” Durbin said. “Making the design and color of packets less appealing to children, making safer, child-resistant packaging, and adding proper warning labels are commonsense protections for consumers similar to those for countless other household products. We can still have convenience without sacrificing safety for children and families.”
“The American Academy of Pediatrics commends Congresswoman Speier and Senator Durbin for introducing the Detergent PACS Act, which will help make laundry detergent pods less toxic to young children,” said Dr. Kyran Quinlan, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury Violence and Poison Prevention. “Recent research found that laundry detergent packets have come to pose a serious poisoning risk to young children, with just under 1,000 children poisoned by these products each month. Children younger than 3 years old accounted for 73 percent of the cases. Now, most people know that 1- and 2-year olds can walk, climb, are good with their hands, and put everything into their mouths. From the published research, we know that most of time, children ingest these colorful products or otherwise burst them open, and expose their mouths, stomachs, skin, and eyes to the detergent’s powerful chemicals. The Detergent PACS Act is an important step forward to put protections in place that will keep children safe.”
