Monitoring Laundry Pod Exposures

Unit-dose laundry “pod” products are relatively new to the market place, and in early 2012 we found that the effects following exposure to them were far worse than expected of traditional liquid or powder laundry soap. We have had cases of children with excessive vomiting, corrosive injury and critical breathing difficulty following oral exposure to these products.

Given the unusual symptoms, we have been monitoring our cases of laundry pod exposures in order to better understand the scenarios associated with the exposure (e.g. the pod was out of its original container) and the clinical effects caused by them. In both 2013 and 2014, we averaged nearly a call a day.

As with all medications and household items, please keep laundry pods out of sight and out of reach of children.