Lawmakers seek safer packaging for laundry pods

Two New York lawmakers want the state to mandate child-resistant packaging, individual warning labels and uniform colors for toxic laundry detergent pods amid the dangerous trend of people eating them and encouraging or daring others to do the same.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, and Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, a Queens Democrat, unveiled their proposal on Tuesday, noting several deaths around the country tied to the Tide Pods challenge, an online trend involving videos of mostly young people biting or ingesting the colorful pods. They say the pods also are a risk to young children and adults with dementia who might mistake them for something edible.

“They’re squishy, they smell sweet and they look like gummy bears,” Hoylman said.

Laundry detergent contains several chemicals that can be poisonous if ingested. The chemicals can cause vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage and even death. The American Association of Poison Control Centers has reported 154 calls to poison control centers relating to teenagers ingesting the pods this year, up from 53 cases last year.

The Procter & Gamble Co., or P&G, which owns Tide, recently launched a campaign to warn people away from eating the pods. The company, which is based in Cincinnati, has redesigned the tubs or bags containing the pods to make it more difficult for children to open them and has added a bitter taste to the plastic covering the pods.

Last month, P&G CEO David Taylor said the company was working to remove online videos featuring people participating in the challenge. He urged adults to help young people understand “this is no laughing matter.”