High Burden of Liquid Detergent Packet Exposure Seen in Children Under 6

TUESDAY, Jan. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The burden of exposure to liquid laundry detergent packets is particularly high among children younger than 6 years, according to a study published online Dec. 19 in Clinical Toxicology.

Alice M. Zhang, from the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues assessed longitudinal trends in the number and rate of liquid laundry detergent packet exposures between January 2014 and December 2022 in the United States.

There were 114,826 single and polysubstance exposures to liquid laundry detergent packets from 2014 to 2022. The researchers found that children younger than 6 years were most commonly exposed (86.8 percent). The annual exposure rate per 1 million children younger than 6 years increased from 392.6 in 2018 to 458.7 in 2020, followed by a 6.8 percent decrease from 2020 to 2022 (427.4 exposures per 1 million). From 2014 to 2017, there was an 85.4 percent increase in the annual rate of adolescent exposures (4.1 to 7.6 exposures per 1 million) followed by a 155.3 percent increase from 2017 to 2018 (19.4 exposures per 1 million). The annual exposure rate increased by 147.1 percent among adults, from 1.7 to 4.2 exposures per 1 million in 2014 and 2022. Among children younger than 6 years, the number of more serious medical outcomes and hospital admissions decreased by 44.3 and 68.6 percent, respectively, from 2014 to 2018.

"The voluntary standard, public awareness campaigns, and product and packaging changes to-date have improved the safety of these products, but a high number of children are still exposed each year," senior author Christopher E. Gaw, M.D., also from the Nationwide Children's Hospital, said in a statement.

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