Emerging Health Risk: Every Day More Than 30 Children Get into Liquid Laundry Packets

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With liquid laundry packets gaining in popularity, now used by 20
percent of U.S. households, parents need to be aware of this emerging
risk for children. Between 2012 and 2013, more than 700 children 5 and
under experienced serious effects as a result of liquid laundry packets,
with the impact greatest among 1 and 2 year olds. In fact, the poison
centers received more than 33,000 calls from 2012 through May 2015.

Safe Kids Worldwide, and Tide and Gain, have teamed up to teach parents
about keeping kids safe around liquid laundry packets.

Download the infographic
and safety
tips.

“Young children are explorers, and as they develop, often learn by touch
and by putting things into their mouths,” said Kate Carr, president and
CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide. “With the increasing popularity of liquid
laundry packets, it’s especially important to make parents aware of the
importance of keeping them out of the reach and hands of children.”

These packets are a concentrated, single-dose product designed to
dissolve in water, so when they come in contact with wet hands or
mouths, they start to dissolve and might release the concentrated liquid
inside.

If children get into laundry packets, the health risk can be
significant. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,
children can experience loss of consciousness, difficulty breathing,
excessive vomiting, severe eye burns, and temporary vision loss.

“Fortunately, the solution to protect children in the home against
potential poisoning is simple,” said Carr. “It’s making sure that
families and caregivers know what to do to ensure a serious incident
doesn’t happen in the home, and what to do if help is needed.”

To prevent poisoning, Safe Kids, and Tide and Gain, offer simple tips to
keep children safe:

• Keep liquid laundry packets out of children’s reach and sight.
• Keep packets in their original container and keep the container closed.
• If a child gets into them, call the Poison Help number immediately,
  1-800-222-1222.

“At P&G, safety is our number one priority,” said Shailesh Jejurikar,
P&G’s North America Fabric Care and New Business Development President.
“Most of us are parents too, and we want families to use our products
safely. Our Up, Up, and Away campaign and our partnership with Safe Kids
Worldwide will support families with information and tools to create
safe home environments. We deeply respect and admire the work that Safe
Kids Worldwide does in helping reduce the amount of preventable injuries
and know that they will be great partners in equipping families with
laundry safety information and tools.”

About Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe
Kids Worldwide is a nonprofit organization working to prevent
childhood injury, the number one cause of death for children in the
United States. Throughout the world, almost one million children die of
an injury each year, and almost every one of these tragedies is
preventable. Safe Kids works with an extensive network of more than 400
coalitions in the U.S. and with partners in more than 25 countries to
reduce traffic injuries, drownings, falls, burns, poisonings and more.
Since 1988, Safe Kids has helped reduce the U.S. childhood death rate
from unintentional injury by 60 percent. Working together, we can do
much more for kids everywhere. Join our effort at safekids.org.

About Procter & Gamble
P&G serves nearly five billion
people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the
strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including
Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®,
Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®,
Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, Wella® and
Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in
approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for
the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

Contacts

Safe Kids Worldwide
Tamara Grider, 202-662-4474
tgrider@safekids.org
www.safekids.org