Free Republic

New York City could soon ban detergent pods across the five boroughs in the latest “green” push from lawmakers. The “Pods are Plastic Bill,” introduced by City Councilman James Gennaro last week, would make it illegal to sell any pods and laundry sheets if they’re made with polyvinyl alcohol. Fines for selling the pods would start at $400, double for a second violation and top off at $1,200 for flouting the rules more than twice, if the bill becomes law. The bill would also require education and outreach to businesses on the ban for the first year. The law wouldn’t...

A Florida infant has reportedly died after eating a laundry detergent pod — something authorities have been warning about ever since the brightly coloured little packets hit the market. The boy, identified by local media as Michael Williams, was at a central Florida battered women's shelter with his mother, who reported she'd left the pods, which are given to residents by the shelter, inside a laundry basket on the bed where her son was sleeping. She stepped away, and when she returned, the baby had eaten one packet and was starting on a second one, police spokeswoman Stacie Miller told...

<p>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...</p> <p>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.</p>