Laundry Capsules Being Mistaken By Children As Sweets

Every day at least one child will mistake a capsule, intended for cleaning clothes, as sweets.

The National Poisons Information Service carried out a survey which discovered that there have been over 2,000 cases of children eating laundry capsules in the past 5 years.

The chemical filled capsules look every appealing to children, with their vibrantly coloured liquids.

Most laundry capsules are high toxic and cause severe risk to a person’s health. Possible health risks if you ingest one include internal burns, breathing difficulties, temporary blindness and even falling into a coma.

There have been 4 cases of children ingesting a capsule then having berthing difficulties, a case of one child’s air ways being burned due to the toxins, and 4 cases of children needing to be put on a ventilator to help them breath, as they couldn’t breathe by themselves.

From 2010 to 2014 there were 2170 case of children swallowing a capsule. There was a story about a 17-month old child, Jenny Maher, biting into a capsule. The capsule was only in the infants mouth for half a second, but they still swallowed half of the liquid in the capsule. This left her in intensive care for a week. The doctor who cared for the child said she had to be put into a coma to save her life. He also said that it was the reaction of the mother, who rushed her child to the hospital, which saved her life. Jenny’s farther was scared for his child, as she could have died.

The Local Government Association, Izzi Seccombe said: ‘Councils have concerns over the number of incidents involving a child and laundry capsules.’

‘Their brightly coloured appearance and small size mean a lot of children mistake them for sweets.’

‘If they bite into the capsule it will cause a cocktail of harmful chemicals to dissolve in their mouth and be ingested, causing serious harm.’

‘Keeping these tablets in a place where children can’t access them, either locked away or in a cupboard they can’t reach, would significantly reduce the chances of a young child getting hold of them.’

‘The frequency with which these incidents are happening, at least once a day, is deeply alarming. Yet they can be easily prevented.’