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?
No need to get excited. Just think of it as evolution in action.
I say leave the Tide pods as a darwinian test.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”What's next for stupid human tricks? The rat poison challenge?
- C.S. Lewis
The alligator challenge (how long can you keep your hand in his mouth)?
The beer bottle challenge (hit yourself with a bottle until it breaks)?
The neurotoxic puffer fish challenge (it's perfect if your lips and tongue go numb without killing you)? Oh, wait, that's Japan.
Liberaltarians would want to keep Pez dispensers full of aspirin legal. Liberaltarians were always trolls, spoiled from childhood.
I had 5 kids before they even had child proof caps on pill bottles.
We used our brains and stored them properly-—no seat belts either.
Those kids grew up without any disasters.
I DESPISE the nanny state.
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Cascade dishwasher pods for me. I’m on a diet.
I prefer 1970s style myself.
10600 recorded illnesses from ingestion?
Damn people are stupid!! Even dogs wouldn’t eat that stuff!
Please post an example pic...
More like with a population of X million, Y members of that population are going to try to eat it.
My dog loves Clorox blue toilet bowl pods, he says they taste like candy.
They pep him up when he’s feeling poopey. He says he will never go back to plain toilet water.
But you may be right. He only talks to me when I’ve polished off a few Cascade Platinum pods.
Thanks for the laugh!
I see no chapter and verse posted.
I am willing to bet 95% of these morons either voted for or supported Hullary and 0bama. The other 5% liked Gary Johnson.
They started banning them a few weeks ago.
Thanks.
Very Nice.
I have no history with this genre, but I’m open to it.
You answered your own question. Abram was "called out" of paganism.
I think the young people should have the turd challenge instead.
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