Posted on 11/19/2013 7:25:36 AM PST by NautiNurse
Edited on 11/19/2013 7:34:03 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
The culprit: single-dose detergent capsules that can have a candy-like appearance. In the past year, they were involved in roughly 10,000 cases of exposure involving young children...
Three years ago, officials at an Italian poison-control center in Milan contacted P&G to report that children were biting into small packets of a P&G concentrated liquid detergent called Dash Ecodosi. The Milan officials advised P&G to make the capsules' packaging opaque and harder to open, said Fabrizio Sesana, a toxicologist at the Milan poison center.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They aren't purchased because they are pretty, it's because they are convenient and easy to use. If they have children then they need to keep the laundry detergent away from soap loving kids.
When adults leave “pretty” chemicals laying around where their children can ingest them, and then leave the children unsupervised, bad things happen.
It’s hardly the fault of the manufacturer.
Pretty ?? Pretty easy, actually. No measuring, no pouring. Just throw a pack in with the wash.
Adults failing to keep chemicals out of the reach of children is NOT the problem of the manufacturer.
How toxic is a mouthful of nasty-tasting detergent?
These packs are useful for older children to be able to start a load. The measuring part doesn’t usually go to well...
What ever happened to parents being RESPONSIBLE? Hello! The children being affected by this are very young children... Last I checked, it was advised that household chemicals be stored where small children cannot get to them.
It makes me wonder if these parents also leave open containers of bleach, rat poison, and ammonia just laying around for their children to play with.
Yes, I wonder why there seems to be a need to add those bright colors to the detergents in those “pods”... and it is to catch customer eyes. BUT - that does not remove all responsibility for parents to be PARENTS...
“The Milan officials advised P&G to make the capsules’ packaging opaque and harder to open...”
Alternatively, someone might remind parents that what goes on in the home is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY.
LOL--adults and children are attracted to bright shiny objects. If the pretty colors didn't sell the product, the manufacturers could save a lot of money by omitting the dyes.
Easy and convenient? As though a scoop is a time consuming and difficult task. Please. You aren't fooling anyone but yourself.
Probably not too horrible if the child’s mouth can be rinsed out fairly soon (assuming the experience doesn’t send him to the faucet quickly to do just that himself). Some minor chemical burns and irritation from the sodium carbonate and enzymes. It’s unlikely to have lasting ill effects.
“Keep out of reach of children” is doubtless on these packages.
Depends on kind of washing machine too. Front loaders do will with detergents that are poured. For top loaders, a toss-in tablet will work fine. It’s less mess.
/johnny
There was a time when a liquid detergent was packaged in a container that looked like a milk container.
In the US, it's the automatic dishwasher detergent "packaged measures" that are the problem with being attractive for children, not to mention more convenient to be kept under the sink.
An advertising guy told me that when dishwasher detergents went to a thick liquid, manufacturers had problems with consumers managing to eject the stuff into their eyes. Eject as in dropping or placing the open jug down hard, and the container "burping" a blob straight up as they were leaning over it.
Not saying it NEVER happens. I said unlikely. There are so many factors with small children. Might have been a delayed allergic reaction. And there’s always the mysterious SIDS. I had a weird allergy when young that never recurred when I was older. Kentucky mints supposedly made my chest break out in a rash, yet they never did so again and I kept wondering why my mom was so uptight about my eating them. It says in that article it is the first time such a lethal event was known to have happened in North America and these products have been around a while.
Tragic — we lament even one death — but sensible precautions to protect children don’t require dulling down an adult world.
Don't tell Bloomberg.
I bought a pack to take on vacation this summer. I thought they were great! Just throw one in the washer, no muss, no fuss.
And much cheaper than buyer detergent from the vending machine in the hotel laundry.
When I travel, I use Purex laundry sheets - throw a sheet in the washer and the detergent is released, keep it with the load into the dryer, and the softener is released. And no one is tempted to eat it.
You have assumed incorrectly.
If adults would avoid purchasing potentially deadly products because they were pretty, the market would alter the product.
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