Laundry Detergent Pack Lawsuit:
Child Detergent Poisonings

Harvey Kirk

By Harvey Kirk
Posted December 3, 2012

ADD YOUR COMMENTS 13

In recent years, many laundry detergent manufacturers have introduced new packets or self-contained pods that contain the appropriate amount of detergent for each load. However, together with the rising popularity of these small and colorful detergent packs there have been a rising number of child poisoning cases that have occurred after toddlers and young children chewed on the pods or put them into their mouths, mistaking them for teething rings or toys.

Laundry Detergent Injury Lawyers

Has Your Child Suffered Poisoning From a Laundry Detergent Packet?

REVIEW A CASE

The product liability lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are reviewing laundry detergent pack poisoning lawsuits for families of children who have been injured after swallowing the detergent or having it enter their eyes.

These products have been manufactured and sold by a number of different companies. Tide Pods are perhaps the most aggressively marketed, featuring swirling colored stripes of orange, blue and white that are sold in bags or containers that often resemble those used to package candy products.

It appears that many devastating injuries could have been avoided if these laundry pods were not marketed in colorful packs, which often resemble toys or candy.

In addition, many families could have prevented devastating injuries if adequate warnings had been provided about the importance of keeping the laundry detergent packs out of the reach of children.

Financial compensation may be available if you or a loved one have been injured by a laundry detergent packet. All claims are handled on a contingency fee basis, meaning there is no fee unless a recovery is obtained.

LAUNDRY DETERGENT PACKET PROBLEMS

Ingestion of laundry detergent pods can lead to severe poisoning and eye irritation. Children or adults who are exposed could suffer:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Dizziness
  • Loss of Consciousness
  • Respiratory Problems
  • Gastrointestinal Damage
  • Vision Loss

Both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued warnings about the dangers of detergent packets in recent months. Over the last year, health officials have seen an increasing number of poisoning cases linked to the packets after children gained access to them and mistook them for candy or a chew toy.

The packets are single-use laundry detergent delivery systems meant to be dropped into the washer. The packets are supposed to make washing less messy and eliminate the need to measure the amount of detergent.

But the packets have been designed in bright colors and made from shiny plastic materials that entice young children. Hundreds of children this year alone have thought the packets were toys or candy and ingested them, leading to severe illness and hospitalization in some cases. In other cases they have gotten the detergent in their eye, resulting in severe eye irritation and temporary vision loss.

The CPSC reports that it is aware of at least 500 incidents involving children and adults who were injured by exposure to laundry pods. However, the CDC says that it has tracked 1,000 incidents between May and early June alone.

In response to the growing problems with laundry detergent packet poisoning, the U.S. CPSC has recommended that parents:

  • Keep their children from handling detergent packets
  • Lock detergent packets up and out of reach and sight of children
  • Call Poison Help immediately at (800) 222-1222 if someone swallows or chews on the packets or suffers eye exposure

LAUNDRY DETERGENT PACKETS POISONING LAWYERS

The lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are investigating whether financial compensation may be available for children who suffered poisoning from laundry detergent packs. All claims are being reviewed on a contingency fee basis, which means that there are no out-of-pocket expenses associated with hiring our law firm and we only receive attorney fees if compensation is received for your child’s injury.

If your child or a loved one has been injured by a laundry detergent pod, request a free consultation and claim evaluation to determine what rights may be available.

CONTACT OUR LAWYERS ABOUT A LAUNDRY DETERGENT PACK LAWSUIT

13 Comments • Add Your Comments

  • sally says:

    A lawsuit against tide pods, how ridiculous! Parents need to be HELD responsible for their own stupidity!

    Posted on October 3, 2013 at 1:40 pm

  • Brandie says:

    Oh yes Sally we all know the 6700 cases were all bad parents!! NOT!! I am a 24/7 parent homemaker and believe me my kids are watched but parents aren’t aware or anyone in the public of the dangerous chemicals in these which aren’t found in regular detergent the doctors in ICU told me these are classified under highly poisonous like battery acid and they contain benzos and chemicals not needed to wash clothes in so seeing how you think you’re smart you’re actually ignorant with nothing better to do than bash parents when you are uneducated about the product. I don’t let people like you get to me I am a great mom who did away with the pods and hope they get them off the shelves they look like candy they’re packaged where any child can get to them and the danger is not on the package of course we don’t want our children ingesting or eating them but 9 times out of 10 these children end up on ventilation tubes and suffer greatly so that you can have the convenience of not measuring your laundry soap. It says now on the package to lock them up oh that’s nice of the company to put that on there how would you feel if you dropped one and a child ate it? We have alternatives like laundry powder or liquid in the bottle that doesn’t have these effects get educated and get over yourself !!!

    Posted on November 6, 2013 at 9:33 am

  • Kristi says:

    For anyone who blames the parents may need to get informed. My house is Ft Knox. My 2 year old doesn’t even know our home is 2 stories, we also have a pond in our back yard, so we had a wood fence with special child proof gates installed, household cleaners in locked cabinet, hot water heater set at a lower temp, fire alarm, carbon dioxide detector, fire extinguisher and everyone CPR certified. I hawk over my son !! I went to SAMs club and purchased the large 90 pod container of Tide. The container was to tall for the cabinet in my laundry room. Not giving it a second thought I put the large container on the top of my dryer. On Saturday at 4:30pm my son managed to push the large canister over, it fell to the floor causing the lid to break off. I ran and my son said “Ball Mommy “in a blink TWO pods exploded in his face. I scooped him up, ran to the bath tub not allowing the water time to warm, flushed my sons eyes, I rinsed for what seemed 15 minutes. After all the rinsing my sons eyes were red but, he seemed ok. I put he’s PJ’s on him and turned on Mickey Mouse. I decided to look up “Tide Pods in eyes” the very first thing said ICU,blind, death… I grabbed my son and ran out of my house. When I arrived at the ER.. My son was unable to see or hold his head up. The triage nurse said most kids go directly to ICU.As of today 3 days later, rapid response, 4 separate Dr.’s my son is still unable to open his eyes!!! He has SEVERELY burned eyes & corneas the PH in his eyes is still HIGH.. And today the Pediatric Ophthalmologist said WHAT THE HELL is this stuff?? The human eye waters naturally and isn’t able to break down EVEN the remits easily… Yesterday a Retina specialist was even scratching his head. My son is not expected loose his sight.. Keep in mind.. NO down time, immediate washing, followed up 20 minutes later with Medical care. We did not wait ONE minute in the ER … My precious little boy has SUFFERED, our lives are on hold.
    Let me say this to ANYONE who doesn’t get it. I’m educated and a superior Mother. My son has never stumped his toe.. I’ve alerted everyone I know to lock away the toxic poison.. I pray my son heals and NOONE suffer as he has.

    Posted on November 25, 2013 at 11:18 pm

  • patti says:

    I am a 48 year old woman and this weekend I had a ALL pod spray directly in my left eye. The pain was and is horrible. I am under care of a opthamoligst. I hope I regain all of my vision!

    Posted on June 1, 2014 at 9:57 pm

  • cassandra says:

    hello my son who was 18 months old at the time climbed from the dryer door onto the dryer and just as my mom looked it burst in his mouth i hurried called poison control they said give him water i did but after less then 3 minutes of injesting tthis pod he became lethargic weak i call 911 they set out an ambulance and a sheriffs unit they took one look at my son and stated he was going to hurley which is a top hospital for kids he was immediately taken to er and several doctors worked on him they thought he might have gotton ahold of medicine but i said thats impossible after two hours in the er we went to the pediatric floor after one hors they put my son on a cpap machine to force air into his lungs 23 hours later my 18 month old lil boy coded my mom was

    Posted on June 21, 2014 at 6:20 am

  • sid says:

    Children have less understanding… adults are more mature… having a detergent dressed as a candy in itself is a crime…imagine a child who goes to his friends house and ends up eating those thing considering them to be candies… parents cannot be supervising their children 24/7 and cannot be held as negligent… this product is very deceptive in its looks and not only do the balls look like candies but also the jar and the plastic casing… when you have a company that sells products that are accessible to the masses you bear a certain degree of responsibility that your product is not deceptive and visually does not appear to be some thing other than what it really is intended for…Well the fact is many children have consumed it and that is a fact… children who eat tide pods are being called idiots and adults who make detergents that look like candies are smart is that what people mean to say?… if that is the case then the world is certainly a messed up place for capitalist gains… and its not just me there are many adults who at first glance mistook it for candies… but at second glance after reading it realized that they are detergents however the children are little innocent beings and at first glance it all looks like candy to them… and being children they don’t give a second glance and eat it… cause it is purposely made to look like candy… for their capitalist gains to make it look more attractive for their products to sell…and the fact is that there have been more than 10,000 cases of children having mistook tide as a candy and consumed it… the product was intentionally designed to resemble like a candy to look more appealing, user friendly and attractive to increase their sales…By the way you do need sales tricks and appealing packaging so that people will buy their products over the products of the rival companies and what better way to attract customers than to make their detergents look like candies… these companies have always always gotten away with it cause no one gives a fuck about the people and the governments and organizations care only for the profits…. and people have allowed them to get away with it… the best way for these corporations to wash their hands of the crime is to shift the blame on the parents… “ohh we are working with the parents to create awareness and it is working” that’s all they can say and they try to divert attention from who really is responsible for it to avoid litigation and court cases… but people are not stupid and these litigation’s have already been filed in courts…

    Posted on November 11, 2014 at 8:52 am

  • Susan says:

    Hello. My mother has suffered the same as you. She was using ALL Mighty Pacs and last June, 2014, one squirted into her eye. She suffered a great deal of pain and luckily we took her to an emergency opthamologist. She needed several different kinds of flushing and eye drops, seals over her eye, and SEVERAL appointments. My mother is 74 and my father is 81. This was very difficult for them. She filed a claim with Sun who owns ALL and sent in all her receipts. They assured her she would receive all out of pockets expenses back. So far, we have not heard anything. They don’t take our calls and ignore all our letters. Have you filed a lawsuit?

    Posted on April 8, 2015 at 11:34 am

  • Chantel says:

    My daughter is 19 months old and is watched like a hawk also. She ended up putting a pod in her mouth this weekend before my mom could get to her. She ended up throwing up and we kept and eye on her breathing but the soap was on her cloths and caused a chemical burn on her chest and stomach.

    Our tide pods were put up too and she still managed to get one. I will make sure I never use tide pods and I would love to see them taken off the shelf

    Posted on August 9, 2015 at 11:00 pm

  • Rachel says:

    I had an laundry detergent pack explode in my hand and fly into my eye. I immediately rinsed my eye for 15 minutes as instructed by poison control. My vision was blurred, my eye was blood shot and eyelid swollen. I had to go to the ER. My cornea was irritated and they gave me some drops and pain killers. I am now under the care of an eye doctor. My vision is returning. It has been very painful. Of course I did not eat this or purposefully squirt this into my eye. This pod should not have exploded. Beware!!!! I can’t imagine a child or dog getting ahold of one of these!

    Posted on January 5, 2016 at 10:48 pm

  • Jeremy says:

    Considering all the horror stories about this product, it seems a no-brainer for the FDA or some government entity to order these things off the market! How many people have to get injured before this happens?

    Posted on April 25, 2016 at 11:36 pm

  • Jennifer says:

    I washed my clothes with a Tide pod, wore them, & have now spent the past 2 days rubbing cortisone on multiple red, swollen, blotches, all over various parts of my body. This rash, burns & it is horribly itchy. I’ve never been allergic to any soap or detergent before in my life. After googling & seeing all the complaints, I’m furious this product is still available to the public. If there is a lawsuit I’d love to be a part of it!

    Posted on December 19, 2016 at 6:00 pm

  • dennis says:

    where is the CPSC when harmful and poisonous garbage like this is sold on the market without ONE SINGLE WARNING about epidemiological issues resultant from it’s use.

    this is my second run in with the stuff. now it is certain that this is the reason for the abdominal swelling and the 80 percent of my body skin rash and damage.

    the makers of Tide should be hanged out to dry, this means you, P and G. YOU!!

    Posted on January 29, 2017 at 10:50 pm

  • Stacii says:

    I know it’s yrs later but my son busted one in his eyes ,and they won’t open 2 days later please let me know your outcome.

    Posted on September 7, 2017 at 4:09 pm

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