A dangerous chemical is lurking unprotected in laundry rooms across America. Those colorful detergent pods that make doing the laundry so easy? They look like a toy or candy to unknowing children. In fact, a number of children have been hospitalized recently due to laundry pod poisoning, raising questions about the safety of these products and the possibility of regulating child-resistant packaging to prevent any future poisonings.
According to a study published this month in Injury Prevention by researchers at the University of Alabama ? Birmingham, over 36,000 children in told were poisoned by laundry detergent in 2012-2014. They found that children under the age of five were most susceptible to laundry detergent related poisoning, and children who ingested laundry pods were four times more likely to be hospitalized than children who ate normal laundry detergent. These poisonings are attributed to the lack of childproof plastic packaging and colorful designs common in this industry.
?While new regulations such as childproof containers, opaque packaging, and less appealing and colorful pods could reduce the number of pod-related emergency department visits for children, caregivers should store detergents, along with other chemicals, in a secure location where children cannot easily access them,? author of the study Thomas Swain wrote.
If new laws are enacted to regulate the plastic packaging of laundry detergent, it will join a host of other products that also must be manufactured to be child resistant. These products, ranging from cigarettes to medicines, mandate child-safe plastic packaging to prevent the chance of accidental poisoning. Even then, over 1,100 emergency room calls are placed daily because a child played with or ate medicine. Utilizing childproof plastic containers is one of the best ways to reduce these numbers.
Wholesale packaging companies can work with you to develop the best, most appealing packaging for your brand that meets all child safety requirements. These custom product packaging manufacturers have a variety of methods, like extrusion blow molding, to develop the ideal plastic container for your brand.
Using methods like extrusion blow molding to create custom plastic bottles allows the packaging company to create a customizable product in a variety of structures, shapes and finishes. Laundry detergent bottles and packaging, as discussed earlier, are also typically manufactured using the extrusion blow molding technique. Choosing a plastic molding company that already utilizes extrusion blow molding could help you to develop the best child-resistant packaging for your brand by making simple adjustments. Ultimately, from the medicine cabinet to the laundry room, a childproof plastic bottle could save someone?s life.
