Exposures to automatic dishwashing rinse aids reported to the United Kingdom National Poisons Information Service 2008–2016

Abstract

Objective: To determine the toxicity of rinse aids which are used as drying aids to remove water from crockery.

Methods: Enquiries to the UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) were analysed retrospectively for the period January 2008 to December 2016.

Results: There were 855 enquiries relating to 828 patients; children aged 5 years or less accounted for 91.1%. Most exposures occurred from ingestion alone (n = 778, 94.0%), but 26 involved ingestion and other routes: 21 with skin contact, 3 with eye contact, and two with both skin and eye contact. There were a further 24 cases of eye contact alone (n = 20, 2.4%) or skin contact alone (n = 3, 0.4%) and a single case of inhalation alone. The World Health Organisation/International Programme on Chemical Safety/European Commission/European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (WHO/IPCS/EC/EAPCCT) Poisoning severity score [PSS] was known in 824 of the 828 exposures: 425 of 824 (51.6%) patients did not develop clinical features, 381 (46.2%) had a PSS of 1 (minor toxicity), 15 (1.8%) developed moderate (PSS 2) and 3 (0.4%) severe (PSS 3) toxicity. Vomiting was the most common feature, occurring in over a third of all ingestions (n = 286, 35.8%), followed by coughing (n = 73, 9.1%). A higher proportion of adults than children developed clinical features (72.7% of 33 vs 46.0% of 767, p = .0026), although vomiting occurred significantly more frequently amongst children (p = .0315). Of the 25 eye contact cases, eye pain (n = 8) and/or eye irritation (n = 8) were reported, with or without abnormal vision (n = 7); there were two cases of corneal abrasion. Dermal contact rarely produced features; only 4 of 26 patients reported symptoms including skin rash or burning or numbness at the contact site.

Conclusions: Severe clinical features were uncommon following rinse aid exposure; vomiting was the most frequently reported symptom following ingestion.

Keywords:

• Automatic dishwashing products
• household product
• non-ionic surfactants
• rinse aid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.