Lawmakers offer bill to protect kids from laundry detergent pods

Democratic senators want to impose tougher requirements on laundry and dish detergent packets, some of which are being consumed by children.

The highly concentrated single-serve soap capsules, known as pods, have become a popular dish and laundry detergent option for consumers, but because the packaging is colorful and easy to break open, safety experts are concerned that kids are being drawn to the product. 

{mosads}In the last two year, the number of calls to poison control has almost doubled. The American Association for Poison Control Centers reported nearly 12,000 calls to poison-control centers last year for children ages five and younger who had ingested a detergent packet, according to a news release from Sen. Bill Nelson’s (D-Fla.) office.

Nelson and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are introducing legislation that will call on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to create better packaging and safety standards for the soap capsules.

“It astonishes me that manufacturers don’t yet realize that if you make a colorful, enticing-looking product, a child will want to get into it,” Nelson said.

According to media reports, a 7-month-old boy in Florida died after eating a laundry detergent pod in 2013.