Posted on 02/01/2018 9:15:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
There were 10,570 injuries related to the consumption of laundry packs in 2017.
Tide Pods have been making a lot of headlines lately—but not for their stain-cleaning power.
Instead, the product has gained notoriety for the so-called “Tide Pod Challenge,” a disturbing phenomenon in which people film themselves eating the laundry detergent-filled packets. Needless to say, consuming the pods is not recommended, and eating them can cause a variety of health problems.
Some companies, including several bakeries, have had fun with the strange fad, making donuts that resemble the colorful detergent pods. But not everyone thinks a lighthearted approach to the problem is correct. In fact, one toxic-chemical researcher has gone so far as to suggest that Tide Pods should be banned completely.
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Good Morning America ✔ @GMA Tide denies plan to discontinue liquid packets despite risky 'pod challenge' https://yhoo.it/2Dr0KXv
10:30 AM - Jan 23, 2018 25 25 Replies 16 16 Retweets 37 37 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy Harold Zeliger, a principal at Zeliger Research and Consulting and a consultant with The Expert Institute, recently wrote an op-ed for Fortune that claims the safety measures that Procter & Gamble—the maker of Tide Pods—and other manufacturers, have taken to reduce the likelihood that people will be tempted to eat these products, have been insufficient.
“It’s clear that laundry pods as they currently exist are too dangerous to be sold to the public. If P&G and other manufacturers can’t figure out a way to reduce the more than 10,000 injuries they cause each year, laundry packs need to be taken off the market,” Zeliger wrote in his commentary.
Zeliger cited statistics from the American Association of Poison Control Centers to prove his point that efforts to curb the danger of the pods have failed. The agency reported 10,395 injuries related to the consumption of laundry packs in 2013. The group reported 10,570 such injuries in 2017, meaning there has been no reduction—and actually an increase in injuries—during the past five years.
Zeliger recommended that manufacturers make the pods even more bitter tasting so that people would be forced to spit them out immediately. He also suggested the pods should be less visually appealing, which he said could be achieved by making them all white. He also wrote that giving the pods a less pleasant smell and feel would also make them less attractive to kids and people suffering from dementia.
Others have said a ban on laundry pods is going too far and that individuals deserve the blame for improperly using them. Writing for the American Institute for Economic Research, Chloe Anagnos said, “Although it’s obvious that eating laundry detergent, drinking way too much sugar or consistently throwing away plastic isn’t good for you or the environment, it isn’t the job of the government to tell us what to do or how to live. We need more personal freedom and less government interference.”
For its part, Procter & Gamble said that Tide Pods themselves are not the problem, nor are their design. “That’s not our focus,” Damon Jones, spokesperson for the company, told NPR regarding a potential change in design for the pods. “Our focus right now is educating consumers about the proper and safe use of household products.”
What do you think? Is an outright ban appropriate? Should manufacturers take further steps to make their products safer, or is it up to individuals not to consume products that are not meant to be eaten?
Heaven protect us from those who seek to protect us from ourselves.
I can understand proper controls to keep young children from eating the pods but there’s absolutely NOTHING you can do to stop adults and teenagers from doing stupid things that could kill them. It’s not like these idiots don’t know that the pods are detergent, not candy. Maybe they’re weeding themselves out of the gene pool.
Facebook and YouTube ban conservative videos but not videos of people making themselves ill from eating laundry detergent.
I agree. Either remove them from the market before there is a huge Class Action Lawsuit from bereaved family members, or make them less visually appealing. The later would be very simple and cheap to do. Just make them white or a dull grey tone.
This should not be Tide’s problem, but it is. Some weak minded, very bored people cannot resist temptation of ‘going viral’ with a wild video.
I don’t like them. I do different sized loads and different amounts of soil in the respective loads.
I prefer to decide how much detergent I do or do not need.
The same goes for the dishwasher.
Let’s not get started on buying watered down products, either! < BG >
That said, those who want them, bully for you. Outlawing them? Typical nannyist!
Why is it that the most vociferous Darwinists are the same folks who want to wrap everything in bubblewrap?
I’m not saying we should kill off the stupid people, I’m just thinking we should remove the safety labels and let nature take its course!
“Our focus right now is educating consumers about the proper and safe use of household products.”
New Tide Pods - Now with Cyanide!
That should keep people from fooling around with the stuff. Seriously - EVERYBODY knows that cyanide is dangerous.
J. B. Phillips said it well: We are Christians not because we have to be, but because we want to be.
Too large of a digital step/granularity.
Not enough nuance for load size, water softness, dirt level, etc.
They cause? This "Expert Institute" guy is looking for a liability lawsuit and he isn't going to get one. Putting product in a container that idiots like to amuse themselves by misusing isn't causing anything except the thinning of the stupid.
Uh how is that a problem? It looks all good....
No....people do stupid stuff all the time with products not intended for such stupid acts. How many household cleaning products are used daily for cheap highs or cooking up drugs? untold amounts!! You can’t ban them just because people started a silly trend. Pine Sol would not be sold right now
People are very, very weird.
Is that paleo?
It’s like blaming gun manufacturers for gun injuries/deaths. Or that’s how it looks to me.
And they’re vegan-friendly and gluten-free!
These idiots that are ingesting the pods would sue their parents if they washed their mouth out with soap for using foul language OR doing STUPID things.
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