Children are mistaking laundry detergent packets for candy

. . . that won't come open easily; some sort of child guard. This looks serious and inevitable that kids are going to get hurt.

The poison centers want to call attention to a surge in the number of young children and toddlers who swallow those single unit packets of laundry detergent that look like tiny balloons. Dishwasher detergents also come in these packets.

If you’ve ever handled them, you know that even the slightest amount of moisture touching the packets will cause the “skin” that covers the detergent to start to dissolve, exposing the substance inside. That’s what’s happening when kids touch these to their tongue or put them in their mouth. Some of them are then swallowing it.

According to the poison centers some children have required hospitalization. Other children have gotten the product in their eye, which causes significant irritation.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthcare/Laundry-packets-can-be-harmful-to-children.html#ixzz1viV5l1Y4

thanks very much for posting, LiL.

They are putting melted plastic on your dishes or clothes! And the cost per use must be 10 times that of a bottle of detergent.

...called a "bioplastic", but instead of being made from petroleum as regular plastics are, bioplastics are made from plant starches or cellulose. They can be engineered to fit all kinds of tasks and can be constructed to biodegrade in different environments properly.

Price-wise, they had been more expensive but the price has been coming down quite a bit lately. I'm really happy to see us moving away from petroleum based plastics and being able to make solid materials out of something as eco-friendly as plant starch/cellulose.

PB

measure out a capful of something and pour it?

...keep certain cleaning agents separate until they're needed. Much like how an epoxy gun has two tubes which have a nozzle which mix them together when they're needed. I've also seen dry tablets which separated the cleaning agents as well.

For instance, I used to use both liquid and powder dish washing detergent in my dishwasher and while that worked fine, my girlfriend came home with some dry compound tablets which she'd gotten a great deal on, at someplace like Costco.

Not only did they do a much better job on the dishes than I expected, they were also considerably cheaper. To give you an idea, we're talking about a box almost a foot square with about 100 compound-composition tablets for something insanely cheap, far cheaper than the regular liquid or (occasionally) powder we'd use.

Of course, we have the more expensive regular-style dish washing detergent for when we wash things by hand, but at least in the case of dishwashers, it's far more economical to use the tabs, and they do just as good or better job.

I'll concede I don't have much experience with using them for washing clothes though- so I'm not attempting to negate your point. I just thought it was worth mentioning the separating of cleaning agents in liquid form, which I thought was the most likely explanation for their existence.

PB

People should keep all cleaning products way, way out of reach of the kidlets.

(But FTR, my confusion lasted a few seconds at most...)

I use an inexpensive brand called Grannies, its environmentally friendly and unscented, and I use less than half the recommended amount so it lasts a very long time. In its powder form its not in any way attractive to children or small animals. I hang the clothes on a clothes line outside in good weather and inside when not, and they smell fresh and clean, and not all tarted up with "tide with smelly shit" or toxic chemicalized dryer sheets.

Ohhh, now I remember...

We raised two kids, they are now 14 and 10 and they never did anything like this......

after a few bites.

And they're teaching their kids to be morons. We keep all of our detergent in the cabinet over our washer. I can barely reach them.