11/29/2023 0 Comments Tide laundry detergent podsAnd nine people have died in the U.S.-two children younger than age 2 and seven seniors with dementia-in cases definitively linked to laundry pods.To the extent that most consumers are aware of these dangers, it’s thanks to an asinine Internet trend. In rare cases like Bella’s, long-term complications can ensue. Still, pods make up 80% of all major injuries related to laundry detergent, according to the American Association for Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), despite accounting for only 16% of the market. The majority of injuries resolve within 24 hours without long-lasting effects. Between 20, the number of annual emergency-department visits for all laundry detergent-related injuries for young children more than tripled, from 2,862 to 9,004. Laundry pods’ threat to public safety became apparent immediately after their North America launch in 2012. And when that happens, they’re more likely than other detergents and other household cleaning products to cause serious injury. Too often, it appears, young children and seniors with dementia mistake them for candy and try to eat them. And P&G, the maker of Tide Pods and another popular brand, Gain Flings, controls 79% of that business.īut the design factors that have made laundry pods so successful-their compactness, easy accessibility, and aesthetically pleasing look-are also potentially fatal flaws. stores by 2018 they accounted for nearly one-fifth of the laundry detergent market and $1.5 billion in sales. Eight years ago, liquid-detergent packets were barely a presence in U.S. They’re also the top-selling brand in a household-product category that became ubiquitous practically overnight. Tide Pods are arguably one of the most successful innovations in the storied, 181-year history of consumer goods leviathan Procter & Gamble. “But you just kind of have to fight through it.” “It’s hard,” says Bella, who in this moment sounds more like a jaded adult than a carefree kid. She has struggled to read and write properly, and she’s had two eye surgeries, with a possible third to come. Bella has a type of strabismus in which the eyes are misaligned vertically her doctors attribute it to oxygen deprivation during the incident. The most serious effects have been on her eyes. She got sick often after the episode, which her doctor surmised was because of the lung injuries she had sustained. Her otherwise bright demeanor-illustrated by the glitter that covers her T-shirt, backpack, and notebook-turns somber.Īfter two weeks of Katie not knowing whether her daughter would pull through, Bella started breathing on her own again. “It was just bubbles, like from a bubble machine.”Īs Katie retells the story, Bella ends her impromptu gymnastics routine and nestles into her mother’s side on the couch. “At 27 minutes, she started projectile vomiting,” Katie recalls. Katie immediately called poison control and was told to force Bella to drink 32 ounces of water and wait 30 minutes to see if she started vomiting bubbles. And I honestly think that that’s what she thought it was,” says Katie. She bit into it before Katie could snatch it away. She was unloading her groceries, she says, when she turned around to see that Bella had opened the case and was about to put a pod in her mouth. Katie recalls that the case was clear plastic, with a button on top that opened the lid when pushed. 17, 2012, Katie brought home her first case of Tide Pods, from Costco, and placed them on the kitchen counter. When she first saw the pods-easily portable packets of concentrated detergent, then new to the market-she thought they’d be a useful convenience. Katie Mancillas often did the laundry for her large family in the suburbs of San Diego, lugging loads to the nearby laundromat. According to Katie, it was a squishy, multicolored packet that’s an increasingly common presence in American homes: a Tide Pod. The cause of Bella’s near-death experience wasn’t a nasty stomach virus or a toxic pesticide. “Oh, my God, I think Bella’s gonna die,” Katie remembers telling her sister. Not long after she arrived, Bella stopped breathing and briefly flatlined. Six years ago, when Bella was 2, she was rushed to the hospital because she was vomiting so uncontrollably that she inhaled fluid into her lungs, blocking her airways. But as her mother, Katie Mancillas, is explaining, in Bella’s case, it’s almost miraculous. For an 8-year-old to be exuberantly goofing off, performing cartwheels and splits while grownups are talking, is nothing out of the ordinary.
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