Toddlers Suffer Eye Burn Injuries Due To Laundry Pods
Laundry detergent in the form of concentrated pods have been on the market since 2012. The product has been in the news often in the last few years due to concerns of safety experts and parents alike questioning how safe they are for children. Reports say that some children mistake the brightly colored packets for candy, and ingest them resulting in poisoning. In addition, chemical burns in the eye of pre-school children was 32 times higher in 2015 than in 2012. Detergent manufacturers have taken proactive steps in creating more child resistant packaging and more stringent standards for labeling, however the product can still pose a serious hazard for young children.
Children can be injured when the packet breaks and the contents may splash into the eyes, or if the contents leaks onto their hands and eyes are rubbed. The packets are often thought of as toys or candy by three and four year olds. The inherent danger lies in the fact that the detergent liquid contained in the pods is highly alkaline and caustic, and can cause serious and sometimes irreparable damage to the cornea.
The burns can be extremely painful. The best option is prevention; storing the product in out of the way cabinets beyond the reach of small children. If a child does get the liquid in the eye, an adult should immediately irrigate the eye with cool water for as long as twenty minutes. And should then be brought immediately to an emergency room for additional medical attention to assess any corneal or eye tissue damage.
The dramatic rise in these accidents appears to be due to increased use of the pods because they are convenient. Carolyn E. Forté, Director of Home Appliances, Cleaning Products and Textiles Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute offers the following advice: “All cleaning products — especially single-dose laundry packets — should be kept away from children and pets not only when stored, but when in use, too. It takes seconds for kids to get their hands on them.”
Injured consumers may also have grounds for legal action if a manufacturer failed to sufficiently warn about potential risks. In effect, if you were injured from an adverse effect of a drug or product that was not adequately warned about, you may be entitled to compensation. Suffering an injury, whether minor or life-threatening, because of a dangerous or defective product doesn’t always entitle victims to immediate compensation. The earlier you seek the counsel of a skilled personal injury attorney, the better your prospects are for collecting monetary damages. Call our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys for a free consultation to discuss your circumstances at 310-641-3335.