Industry pans bill targeting detergent pods

Cleaning product manufacturers are calling a bill to impose stricter standards for single-serve laundry and dish detergent packets unnecessary.

“Manufacturers have already made major changes to their packaging including the addition of easy-to-understand safety icons, improving warning labels to advise proper use and storage instructions, and changing to opaque packaging so the laundry packets are not visible from the outside,” the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) said in response to the Detergent Poisoning and Child Safety, or Detergent PACS, Act  introduced in both the House and Senate today.

The bill, authored by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) would direct the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue new rules requiring safer, child-resistant packaging for liquid detergent packets within eighteen months of the bill’s passage.

Filled with colorful liquid detergents, lawmakers and consumer product safety advocates say the single-serve, bite-sized pods are dangerous because they look like candy. From 2012 to 2013, the National Poison Data System received 17,230 calls involving children who had ingested the chemicals in the packets. 

But the ACI, which has a consumer awareness outreach program to educate parents and caregivers about the safe way to store and use laundry pods, said the products should be treated like any other household cleaners and stored out of reach and out of sight of children.

“The fact is, legislation is unnecessary because there are already comprehensive activities taking place addressing the safety of detergent packets,” the group said in a statement.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced the bill in the Senate, said although parents should do all they can to keep laundry detergent pods out of the reach of children, companies can do more to address the rising number of poison control calls.

“Making the design and color of packets less appealing to children, strengthening the water-soluble outer layer, and adding proper warning labels are common-sense protections for consumers similar to those for countless other household products,” he said in a statement. “We can still have convenience without sacrificing safety for children and families.”