Much ado about laundry pod exposure

LAUNDRY pods rank somewhere between glue and soap, when it comes to the total universe of "Things That Are Dangerous to Kids," says Christopher Ingraham in his recent Wonkblog at The Washington Post.

Mr. Ingraham notes there were 11,000 detergent pack-related calls to US Poison Control Centers in 2013, when over the same period, there were also 11,000 calls related to pens and ink, 15,000 for air fresheners, 19,000 for deodorant, 20,000 for hand sanitizers and 40,000 for bleach.

He also points out that reports of laundry pod exposure rarely result in a serious medical emergency. Of the 11,000 laundry pod calls in 2013, 54 resulted in a major injury and two resulted in death — a rate of 0.51%. That's less than the major injury rate for acetaminophen (0.94%) and diphenhydramine (such as Benadryl, 0.74%), and comparable to the rates for rubbing alcohol (0.43%) and laundry detergent as a whole (0.34%).

Compared to the 29 deaths due to accidental poisoning among children ages 1 to 4 in 2013, firearms killed more than twice as many toddlers, other types of assault killed 10 times as many, and the No. 1 cause of death for small children was car accidents, with 454 fatalities.

Those statistics are not preventing marketers from increasing their efforts to make sure that consumers follow safe laundry practices. P&G brands Tide and Gain are partnering with Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit organization working to keep kids safe from preventable injuries, to raise awareness and educate families about how to prevent injuries related to children and laundry pacs across the country.

While industry efforts may go a long way to reducing detergent pack ingestions, Mr. Ingraham pointed out they may never do away with grandstanding by politicians and alarmist reports in the media. "Too much of our public discourse about child safety is predicated on the fiction that we can make the world 100% safe for kids, if only we legislate a little harder or circumscribe our kids' worlds a little more tightly," he said.