Several months ago, our Boston injury lawyer blog posted a story about a recent alert put out about by the Consumer Product Safety Commission warning that single-load liquid laundry packets are toxic for kids-especially because their gel-like tiny packets tend to be soft and colorful, making them attractive to young children, who tend to be easily prone to putting tiny objects in their mouth.
Now comes a report that a 7-month-old boy has died after eating one of these laundry packets and an investigation into the incident is ongoing. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the ingestion accident took place in a battered women’s shelter. It is not known at this time whether ingestion of the detergent caused the baby’s death. If it is, this would be the first reported poisoning death involving these pods.
The American Association of Poison Control reports that already this year there have been 5,753 kids under the age of sick that have gotten sick from ingesting laundry detergent packets. The pods are the right size for putting in the mouth and can puncture easily, potentially causing serious side effects even if the detergent just makes contact with the eyes or skin. Serious side effects have included vomiting, breathing problems, drowsiness, eye irritation, temporary vision, ocular burns, and diarrhea. Many of the laundry detergent brands that make these detergent pods don’t package them in childproof containers, which means that if a child gets to one of these containers while unsupervised, he/she can easily open one up and touch the pods and/or put it in the mouth, thinking it is a toy, candy, or an object to teeth on.
According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, every 15 seconds, a poison control center in the US gets a call reporting a poisoning incident, with more than 50% of these accidents involving a kid that swallowed a substance that could be potentially toxic. About 30 kids die in this country a year from accidental poisoning.
At Altman & Altman, LLP, our Boston products liability lawyers represent the families of children that became sick, were injured, or died because a consumer product prove toxic or unsafe in some other way. Contact our Massachusetts personal injury law firm today.
Baby dies after ingesting laundry detergent pod, CNN, August 16, 2013
CPSC and ACCC Warn of Poison Dangers with Liquid Laundry Packets, CPSC, March 21, 2013
American Association of Poison Control
More Blog Posts:
Boston Products Liability?: Keep Kids Away from Single-Load Liquid Laundry Pods, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, November 25, 2012
Provincetown Woman Arrested and Charged with OUI after Head-on Collision on Sagamore Bridge, Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog, August 5, 2013
How to Make the Most of Witness Interviews after a Workplace Injury, Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Blog, July 30, 2012