A review of 4652 exposures to liquid laundry detergent capsules reported to the United Kingdom National Poisons Information Service 2008-2018.

Introduction

Liquid laundry detergent capsules contain concentrated liquid laundry detergent in a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol membrane.

Objective

To review 4652 exposures reported to the United Kingdom National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) and to assess the impact of regulatory changes on potential toxicity.

Methods

Telephone enquiries to the NPIS and returned questionnaires for these products were analyzed for the period January 2008 to December 2018.

Results

Data on 4652 exposures were reported by telephone or questionnaire, of which 95.4% involved children aged ≤5 years. Overall, 1738 of 4594 patients remained asymptomatic (Poisoning Severity Score [PSS] 0), 2729 developed minor (PSS 1) features, 107 suffered moderate features (PSS 2), 19 were graded as severe (PSS 3) and one died. Ingestion was involved in most exposures (n = 4175): vomiting occurred in 46.5%, coughing occurred in 4.3% and central nervous system depression in 3.2%. Nine (0.2%) children were intubated and ventilated. The eye was exposed in 646 cases: 371 (59.8%) suffered conjunctivitis or eye irritation and 21 (3.4%) had keratitis/corneal damage, which persisted in one patient for 9 d. The skin was involved in 364 cases; in 127 (35.5%) minor dermal features developed including erythema, irritation and rash. The most commonly reported features in the 127 cases with PSS ≥2 were vomiting (n = 75), stridor (n = 34), CNS depression (n = 22), keratitis/corneal damage (n = 21), coughing (n = 18), conjunctivitis (n = 13), hypersalivation (n = 12), foaming from the mouth (n = 11) and hypoxemia (n = 11). However, respiratory features (stridor, hypoxemia, bronchospasm, respiratory distress, dyspnea, pulmonary aspiration and tachypnea) were the reason for grading 56 of 127 cases as PSS ≥2.

Conclusions

This large data set of 4652 exposures is reassuring in that 97.2% of exposures resulted in no or only minor features, only 107 patients suffered moderate features (PSS 2) and 19 severe (PSS 3) features; one patient died.