A review of 4652 exposures to liquid laundry detergent capsules reported to the United Kingdom National Poisons Information Service 2008–2018

Abstract

Introduction: Liquid laundry detergent capsules contain concentrated liquid laundry detergent in a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol membrane.

Objective: To review 4652 exposures reported to the United Kingdom National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) and to assess the impact of regulatory changes on potential toxicity.

Methods: Telephone enquiries to the NPIS and returned questionnaires for these products were analyzed for the period January 2008 to December 2018.

Results: Data on 4652 exposures were reported by telephone or questionnaire, of which 95.4% involved children aged ≤5 years. Overall, 1738 of 4594 patients remained asymptomatic (Poisoning Severity Score [PSS] 0), 2729 developed minor (PSS 1) features, 107 suffered moderate features (PSS 2), 19 were graded as severe (PSS 3) and one died. Ingestion was involved in most exposures (n = 4175): vomiting occurred in 46.5%, coughing occurred in 4.3% and central nervous system depression in 3.2%. Nine (0.2%) children were intubated and ventilated. The eye was exposed in 646 cases: 371 (59.8%) suffered conjunctivitis or eye irritation and 21 (3.4%) had keratitis/corneal damage, which persisted in one patient for 9 d. The skin was involved in 364 cases; in 127 (35.5%) minor dermal features developed including erythema, irritation and rash. The most commonly reported features in the 127 cases with PSS ≥2 were vomiting (n = 75), stridor (n = 34), CNS depression (n = 22), keratitis/corneal damage (n = 21), coughing (n = 18), conjunctivitis (n = 13), hypersalivation (n = 12), foaming from the mouth (n = 11) and hypoxemia (n = 11). However, respiratory features (stridor, hypoxemia, bronchospasm, respiratory distress, dyspnea, pulmonary aspiration and tachypnea) were the reason for grading 56 of 127 cases as PSS ≥2.

Conclusions: This large data set of 4652 exposures is reassuring in that 97.2% of exposures resulted in no or only minor features, only 107 patients suffered moderate features (PSS 2) and 19 severe (PSS 3) features; one patient died.

Keywords:

• Laundry pods
• liquid laundry detergent capsules
• single-use detergent sacs

Acknowledgments

We are most grateful to Vanessa Silva and William Brenneman, Procter and Gamble, for providing the IRi^® data on UK sales and for statistical advice, respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The UK NPIS has received unrestricted educational grants to undertake studies on the toxicity of household products from the UK Cleaning Products Industry Association (UKCPI) and Procter and Gamble.