WYFF Investigation: Detergent pods pose danger to small children
Gabrielle Komorowski
WYFF News 4 Investigates found many small children can't tell the difference between deadly laundry detergent pods and candy. Watch Gabrielle Komorowski's reportWYFF4's Gabrielle Komorowski showed four children between ages 2 and 4 a bowl of fruit snacks and a separate bowl of laundry detergent pods and asked the children which bowl they thought was filled with candy. Three out of the four children picked the bowl filled with the laundry detergent pods. One child said the laundry detergent pods looked like they were strawberry-flavored. "It's eye-opening," said Jennifer Bunecke, a mother. "It's fun colors, it's big and kind of fun to play with. I can understand," Bunecke said. "Developmentally, things go in their mouth. They're still very oral at this age. They'll try it and see what it tastes like because it smells, feels and looks like it's candy," said Cynthia Fryer, manager of Safe Kids Upstate. According to the Palmetto Poison Center, which receives emergency calls from every county in South Carolina, there have been 137 calls in 2013 about children being exposed to laundry pods. According to the center, most of those calls were about children who had ingested the pods. "They can cause vomiting. They can cause, at the mildest, an upset stomach. At its worst, it can actually cause problems and they end up on a ventilator because they have problems breathing," Fryer said. Fryer said parents must protect their children's access to laundry detergent pods."Keep them locked away from your child, use child-safe cabinets. Put them up high," Fryer said. WYFF News 4 Investigates reached out to the companies that manufacture the pods. A Tide spokeswoman told News 4's Gabrielle Komorowski that Tide doesn't plan to change the look of the pods but they are changing the lid on the container to a triple latch. She also said the container is now opaque instead of clear. The director of the Palmetto Poison Center said dish detergent pods can also make a child sick to their stomach, but the laundry pods are the bigger danger because they are highly concentrated and can be deadly.
WYFF News 4 Investigates found many small children can't tell the difference between deadly laundry detergent pods and candy.
Watch Gabrielle Komorowski's report
WYFF4's Gabrielle Komorowski showed four children between ages 2 and 4 a bowl of fruit snacks and a separate bowl of laundry detergent pods and asked the children which bowl they thought was filled with candy.
Three out of the four children picked the bowl filled with the laundry detergent pods. One child said the laundry detergent pods looked like they were strawberry-flavored.
"It's eye-opening," said Jennifer Bunecke, a mother. "It's fun colors, it's big and kind of fun to play with. I can understand," Bunecke said.
"Developmentally, things go in their mouth. They're still very oral at this age. They'll try it and see what it tastes like because it smells, feels and looks like it's candy," said Cynthia Fryer, manager of Safe Kids Upstate.
According to the Palmetto Poison Center, which receives emergency calls from every county in South Carolina, there have been 137 calls in 2013 about children being exposed to laundry pods. According to the center, most of those calls were about children who had ingested the pods.
"They can cause vomiting. They can cause, at the mildest, an upset stomach. At its worst, it can actually cause problems and they end up on a ventilator because they have problems breathing," Fryer said.
Fryer said parents must protect their children's access to laundry detergent pods.
"Keep them locked away from your child, use child-safe cabinets. Put them up high," Fryer said.
WYFF News 4 Investigates reached out to the companies that manufacture the pods. A Tide spokeswoman told News 4's Gabrielle Komorowski that Tide doesn't plan to change the look of the pods but they are changing the lid on the container to a triple latch. She also said the container is now opaque instead of clear.
The director of the Palmetto Poison Center said dish detergent pods can also make a child sick to their stomach, but the laundry pods are the bigger danger because they are highly concentrated and can be deadly.