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Intentional Laundry Pod Ingestion

Over the last couple of days the Georgia Poison Center (GPC) and other agencies have received multiple reports of overdoses from Central and South Georgia. Patients are being found unconscious or unresponsive with difficulty breathing or no breathing at all. 

According to the AAPCC. over 50,000 calls were made to poison control centers in regards to an exposure with liquid laundry packets. A majority of these calls were for unintentional misuse of children five and under. We are now seeing an increase in intentional ingestion of the laundry packets from teenagers due to a recent trend – ingesting the laundry packet and uploading a video of it to various internet platforms.

Misusing these laundry packets can cause serious health implications. Potential effects can include seizures, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma and even death.

AAPCC data for intentional exposures among 13-19 year olds

Year # Cases
2016 39 cases
2017 53 cases
January 2018 143 cases
*  Numbers for 2017 are subject to change since 2017 data set will not be closed until the summer of 2018

 

If you or someone you know misuses a laundry packet or has questions about the potential risks please call us immediately.

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