The new form of laundry detergent entered the
market in 2012, and shortly after the introduction of the “Laundry
Pod” the poison control centers started getting calls of injuries to young
children, including vomiting, difficulty breathing, eye and other injuries.

Laundry detergent pods have 3 main routes of
exposure: ingestion, ocular, and dermal.

Unfortunately, the pods seem like a toy to
children, who can rupture the packaging either through squeezing or biting
which can result in eye injuries that are often worse than those caused by
bottled detergents maybe because of the surfactant or other chemicals in
the pods’ formation.

In one state, in 2012 they answered 220 calls to
their poison center hotline in reference to detergent pod poisonings, in 2013
it was 262, and it has risen to 321 and counting as far as October of 2014.

For now, my best advice is to treat your laundry
pods like any other poison around your house. If you have small children, keep
them out of their reach, and supervise them in the laundry room. 

If your child should ingest one of these pods or
it ruptures on the skin or in the eyes contact your local poison control center
or 911 immediately.