Cleaning products harbor a dirty secret

Pediatric poisoning is a serious issue. According to a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, each year on average 33 children die due to unintentional poisoning, and in many cases, cleaning products were the culprit. In a recent two-year period, unintentional ingestion of a cleaning product was the second most common cause of pediatric poisonings. Cleaning products pose a heightened risk because their brightly-colored packaging and appealing scent often make them attractive to children. 

According to a report published in the August issue of Pediatrics, using information obtained from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance system (NEISS), 267,260 children were treated for household cleaning product related injuries from 1990 to 2006. The vast majority (98.8 percent) of those injuries occurred in the home. 

Despite decreases in the number of injuries from 22,141 in 1990 to 11,964 in 2006, one sector showed an increase: spray bottles. Injuries related to products contained in spray bottles, particularly eye injuries, increased from 30 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2006. 

Bleach was the most commonly ingested product, and it was also the product associated with the highest percentage of injuries. It can cause damage to many of the mucosal membranes inside the body. Many people are aware that bleach can be very dangerous when it is combined with ammonia, as these two can react to form toxic chloramine gas, which can be fatal. 

How can you keep your children safe? We have several suggestions. Child-resistant containers have no doubt contributed to the overall decrease in household cleaning product-related poisonings, but they are often made ineffective by improper use. If you are using a product with a child-resistant container, always make sure you close it correctly and securely. You should follow the correct guidelines for poison storage and keep household cleaning products in a locked cabinet, something that many people fail to do. Finally, transferring a product to a different container increases the chance that a child will be able to access it, so always keep products in their original container, and be sure to dispose of leftover products safely.   

Several years ago, we prompted Colgate Palmolive to use child resistant caps on Fabuloso, an all-purpose cleaner whose packaging made the product look like a fruit-flavored beverage. Read more on that story here. 

—Jason Harary