A warning about a popular product in many of our laundry rooms.
Procter & Gamble has recalled more than eight million packages of its popular liquid laundry detergent pods.
They said a bag defect could make the colorful packs accessible to children and others.
Consumer Reports said you should take precautions because the laundry pods are a severe poisoning risk.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, some of the flexible, child-resistant bags of Procter & Gamble’s liquid laundry detergent pods can split open near the zipper.
The recalled products were made between September 2023 and February 2024 and sold as Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods, and Ariel Pods.
P&G explained, “While the product inside remains safe to use, we are voluntarily recalling a limited number of laundry pac bags and providing consumers with a replacement bag…”
Consumer Reports first warned people about laundry pods’ severe dangers over a decade ago.
“Every year poison control centers continue to receive thousands of calls related to laundry pod exposure, and when you look at these laundry pods, they’re squishy. They’re fun to touch. They’re colorful and look a lot like candy. All of these characteristics make them super attractive to a child who might want to explore with their hands and mouths. And these pods use highly concentrated detergents, putting children and cognitively impaired adults at serious risk,” said Oriene Shin, with the Consumer Reports Policy Counsel.
As early as 2012, CR called on manufacturers to make detergent pods safer, and argued that outer packaging should meet federal standards for child-resistant packaging under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act.
“Every manufacturer has a responsibility to use appropriate product packaging to keep kids safe and to ensure its packaging is truly child-resistant before it’s in the homes of millions of consumers,” said Shin.
In its recall notice, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urges consumers to immediately secure their detergent packages out of children’s reach and contact P&G for a refund and replacement child-resistant bag to store the pods.