Loading...
Laundry detergent packaged as single-use “pods” arrived in the U.S. in 2012. In a review of data from the National Poison Data System (NPDS) for 2012 and 2013, researchers identified 17,230 calls to poison control centers reporting laundry pod exposures in children younger than 6 years (a rate of 3.7 per 10,000). Sixty-five percent of exposures were in 1- and 2-year-olds.
Ingestion was the most common route of exposure (90%), followed by ocular (13%), dermal (10%), and aspiration (0.4%); many children had multiple types of exposures. The most common clinical effects were vomiting (48%), coughing/choking (13%), eye pain/irritation (11%), and drowsiness/lethargy (7%). Of those with ocular exposure, 14% suffered ocular burns or corneal abrasion…