Put Pacs in Perspective

When it comes to accidental ingestions, parents and lawmakers should worry less about ingesting laundry pacs and concern themselves more with accidental pain reliever poisonings.


That's the view of Christopher Ingraham in his recent Wonkblog at The Washington Post. Ingraham notes that in 2013, there were 11,000 detergent pack-related calls to US Poison Control Centers. Of course, during the same period, there were also 11,000 calls related to pens and ink, 15,000 for air fresheners, 19,000 for deodorant, 20,000 for hand sanitizers and 40,000 for bleach.

In other words, in the total universe of “Things That Are Dangerous To Kids,” calls about laundry pods rank somewhere between glue and soap, he notes.


Furthermore, Ingraham points out, reports of laundry pod exposure rarely result in a serious medical emergency. Of the 11,000 laundry pod calls in 2013, 54 resulted in a major injury and two resulted in death — a rate of 0.51%. That's less than the major injury rate for acetaminophen (0.94%) and diphenhydramine (such as Benadryl, 0.74%), and comparable to the rates for rubbing alcohol (0.43%) and laundry detergent as a whole (0.34%).


Ready for more reality-based statistics? Well, buckle up. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 29 deaths due to accidental poisoning among children ages 1 to 4 in 2013. Firearms killed more than twice as many toddlers, other types of assault killed 10 times as many, and the No. 1 cause of death for small children was car accidents, with 454 fatalities.


It's all true, but that's not stopping marketers from increasing their efforts to make sure that consumers follow safe laundry practices.


For example, P&G brands Tide and Gain are partnering with Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit organization working to keep kids safe from preventable injuries. The partnership marks the launch of the Up, Up and Away campaign, a laundry safety initiative reminding parents and caregivers to seal laundry detergent pacs up, store pacs up, and keep pacs away from children.


Tide, Gain, and Safe Kids Worldwide will raise awareness and educate families about how to prevent injuries related to children and laundry pacs across the country. These efforts will be supported by multiple initiatives including a Safe Kids coalition grant program, community outreach, and online tools and tips.


And while industry efforts may go a long way to reducing detergent pack ingestions, they may never do away with grandstanding by politicians and alarmist reports in the media.


“Too much of our public discourse about child safety is predicated on the fiction that we can make the world 100% safe for kids, if only we legislate a little harder or circumscribe our kids' worlds a little more tightly,” he concluded.