One death, more than 700 illnesses among young U.S. children
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 10, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Laundry detergent "pods" seriously sickened more than 700 U.S. children and killed at least one in a recent two-year period, a new report reveals.
Poison control centers across the country logged more than 17,000 calls about children exposed to the convenient laundry aids during that same period, researchers also found.
"Something about these pods makes them highly toxic. They pose a very serious poisoning threat to kids," said report co-author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
"Parents need to make an informed decision if they bring these products into their homes," Smith added. "We're recommending that they not use these pods if they have young children in the home."
The pods are brightly colored single-use packets of laundry detergent enclosed in a water-soluble membrane that dissolves in the wash. They're a relatively new alternative to traditional liquid and powder detergents. But they're dangerous to kids, especially those under 3, Smith said.
"They [young children] are curious, and they have no concept of danger," he said. "They explore their environment by putting things in their mouth, and they see something that's colorful and can easily mistake it for candy or juice."
Dr. Jeanie Jaramillo, managing director of the Texas Panhandle Poison Center, agreed. "They [pods] are also soft and pliable, so kids may find that they are fun to squeeze or play with," she added.
But when kids bite into a detergent pod, "they get this big squirt of concentrated chemicals, a large amount of fluid," Smith said.
The report authors launched their research because the pods -- available in the United States for about four years -- have become a significant poisoning threat. In the past, laundry detergents weren't a major poisoning problem for kids, Smith said.
"It's a relatively new phenomenon. We've seen children coming into our hospital emergency department with really severe consequences of ingesting contents from these detergent pods," Smith added.
The report authors analyzed statistics from U.S. poison control centers from 2012-13. They found 17,230 reports of kids younger than 6 who were injured by laundry pods, mostly (80 percent) by ingesting them.
Children under 3 accounted for about three-quarters of cases, and 8 percent had what the researchers called a moderate or major medical issue as a result.
More than 700 children required hospital admission, often to an intensive care unit, Smith said. "In many cases, they were in a coma," he said.
In addition to one death, more than 100 children needed to be intubated -- to have a tube put down their throats to help them breathe.
Smith said he hasn't seen any reports about what makes the laundry pods so toxic. Pods of dishwashing detergent are also available, but they're chemically different and aren't causing this kind of widespread problem, he said.
source : Laundry Detergent Pods Pose Poisoning Risk to Kids, Study Says
