Laundry detergent pods pose 'serious poisoning risk' for children

One young child per day was hospitalized in the United States in 2012 and 2013 because of laundry detergent pods, according to a study published on Monday.

Laundry detergent pods began appearing on U.S. store shelves in early 2010, and people have used them in growing numbers ever since, but the convenience has come with risks for young children.

U.S. poison control centers received reports of 17,230 children younger than 6 years of age swallowing, inhaling, or otherwise being exposed to chemicals in laundry detergent pods in 2012 and 2013, or about one per hour, researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio said.

A total of 769 young children were hospitalized during that period, an average of one per day, and one child died, the researchers said.

One and two year-olds accounted for nearly two-thirds of cases as children that age often put items in their mouths as a way of exploring their environments.

According to the researchers, children who put detergent pods in their mouths risk swallowing a large amount of concentrated chemicals and the vast majority of exposures in this study were due to ingestion.

"Laundry detergent pods are small, colorful, and may look like candy or juice to a young child," co-author Marcel Casavant, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children's Hospital, said in a statement.