Do you use laundry or dishwasher detergent packets in your household?
A May 2016 study released in Pediatrics entitled “Pediatric Exposures to Laundry and Dishwater Detergents in the United States: 2013-2014,” draws attention to severity of health concerns for infants under the age of 6 who have ingested laundry and dishwasher detergent packets and pods. The study revealed that occurrences of exposures to laundry detergent packets increased by 17 percent from 2013 through 2014. The expressed concern that pediatric exposures to laundry detergent packets “should be closely monitored nationally” is warranted, given the relatively small size and colorful appearance, providing an illusion of candy or sweets. This is the first study to analyze and compare pediatric exposures to traditional and packet forms of laundry and dishwasher detergents by using a national database.
Dr. Gary Smith, the lead study author, commented that “we found that the majority of poisonings were due to exposure to laundry detergent packets and unfortunately it was precisely those products that were causing the greatest toxicity.” Dr. Smith and his team analyzed data from more than 62,000 calls made to U.S. poison control centers after unintentional exposures to laundry or dishwater detergent in children.
The authors found that the liquid laundry detergent packets resulted in 17 comas, six cases of respiratory arrest, four cases of pulmonary edema, and two cases of cardiac arrest. According to Dr. Smith, “children at this age will explore their environment by putting things in their mouth and if they simply bite down on one of these things, they’ll burst and those contents will shoot to the back of their throat.”
Kids under the age of 3 accounted for the majority of cases in the study, with 2 year-olds making up slightly more than 16 percent of dishwasher detergent and about 30 percent of laundry detergent packets. The authors noted that differences in the chemical composition and concentration between laundry detergent packets and other types of detergents may account for the higher toxicity observed for laundry detergent packets.
