Consumer Reports Warns Against Using Laundry Pods In Households With Kids Under The Age Of Six
It’s a solemn day for lovers of those cute little laundry detergent pods: the long-respected organization Consumer Reports has announced today that it can no longer place any of these products on its list of recommended laundry detergents, which it has in previous years.
Moreover, they’re advising these single-use balls, first made popular in 2012 and which currently make up about 12 percent of all detergents on the market, not be used at all in households with children younger than six.
The shift is due to the fact that young children are finding it very easy to mistake the pods as either toys or food. It’s a mistake that has resulted in more than 11,000 calls to poison control centers in 2014, and over 6,000 this year, because kids either ingest or inhale the cleaning liquid inside or have it break open onto their skin. About 4,500 of the calls in 2014 required additional medical attention.
These incidents have been especially harmful when compared to conventional detergent products, though it isn’t understood why yet. “Along with vomiting, lethargy, and delirium, some victims have stopped breathing. Eye injuries are another common hazard,” a statement from Consumer Reports noted. ”And since 2013, at least two children have died after ingesting a pod.”
Though some manufacturers have tried their best to create workarounds around the problem, either by creating child-resistant packaging or attaching more warnings, Consumer Reports believed that these changes just weren’t enough. They explain that new voluntary safety guidelines are currently being developed by ASTM International, which sets standards for many consumer products. The recommendations that may come down the pipeline include making the detergent more intolerable (bitter) to ingest, and making the packaging harder to bite or dissolve open. Similar efforts are being made through Congress, with the drafting of the Detergent PACS (Poisoning and Child Safety) Act of 2015, though it has only been introduced to the House as of now.
Their warning doesn’t apply to detergent pods that are powder-based, since there doesn’t seem to be a heightened risk of danger from them.
“The product does have benefits for certain groups of consumers,” their statement read. “But until the pods are proved to be as safe as they are effective, they’ll have no place on our winners’ list.”