COLUMBUS (WCMH) – A new study conducted by doctors at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that exposure to laundry detergent pods is more dangerous to children than exposure to other types of detergent.
The study was conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital along with the Central Ohio Poison Center.
According to the study, poison control centers in the U.S. received more than 62,000 calls related to laundry and dishwasher detergent exposure involving children under six-years-old.
Detergent packets accounted for 60 percent of all those calls. Almost half of the calls involving laundry detergent packets were referred to health care facilities for treatment.
Only 17 percent of calls involving traditional laundry detergent were referred for treatment.
Poison control centers received more than 30 calls a day about children who had been exposed to a laundry detergent packet, which is about one call every 45 minutes.
Laundry pods were found to be the most hazardous, especially when the pods contain liquid detergent rather than granules.
The effects to children from laundry pod ingestion included:
- 17 cases of coma
- 6 cases of respiratory arrest
- 4 cases of pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs)
- 2 cases of cardiac arrest
“I’ve seen children in emergency departments for decades that have been exposed to laundry detergents,” Dr. Gary Smith told the Today Show. “But we have never seen anything like this. These children have come in in a coma, they’ve stopped breathing. We’ve even had two deaths in the last two years due to exposure to laundry detergent packets.”
Experts recommend that families with children younger than six-years-old use traditional detergent instead of packets. “Many families don’t realize how toxic these highly concentrated laundry detergent packets are,” says Marcel J. Casavant, MD a co-author of the study, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center. “Use traditional laundry detergent when you have young kids in your home. It isn’t worth the risk when there is a safer and effective alternative available.”
Nationwide Children’s Hospital recommends the following steps to help keep children safe:
- People who have young children that live in or visit their home should use traditional laundry detergent, which is much less toxic than laundry detergent packets.
- Store all laundry detergent including packets up, away, and out of sight – in a locked cabinet is best for laundry packets.
- Close laundry detergent packet packages or containers and put them away immediately after use.
- Save the national Poison Help Line number (1-800-222-1222) in your cell phone and post it near your home phones.
Consumer Reports stopped recommending laundry detergent pods in July of 2015 after a previous study showed high rates of poisonings in young children.
