A warning about a popular product in many of our laundry rooms -- Procter & Gamble has recalled more than 8 million packages of its popular liquid laundry detergent pods because a bag defect could make the colorful packs accessible to children and others.
As Consumer Reports explains, you must 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.
“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…” P&G explained.
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, you see that 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.
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 is responsible for using appropriate product packaging to keep children safe and ensure its packaging is truly child-resistant before it reaches the homes of millions of consumers.
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.
Given the continued danger, Consumer Reports strongly urges households where children younger than 6 or cognitively impaired adults are ever present to skip laundry pods altogether, opting for liquid or powder detergent that is also kept out of reach.
If you think someone ingested a laundry pod, call a poison control center at 800-222-1222 or 911 and seek immediate medical attention.