Are Colorado Kids Falling for the Tide Pod Challenge?

You’ve probably seen it in the news. Some teens and young adults are eating “Tide Pods” — single-load laundry detergent packets — and posting videos of themselves on social media.

While it’s unclear how the fad got started, the trend is concerning. Tide Pods and other single-load laundry packets are harmful if ingested and potentially toxic. The contents of the pods can cause burns to the mouth, lips and throat, seizures, bleeding of the lungs, heart attacks, coma, and even death, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC).

Denver Health’s Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center (RMPDC) received 134 calls for exposure to single-load laundry packets between Oct. 1, 2017 and Jan. 22, 2018 from the states it serves (Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming).

Of those, 53 were from Colorado. Eight of the 134 calls were for intentional exposures. Seven of those eight cases originated from Colorado. The vast majority of poisoning calls stem from accidents, likely by toddlers who found the brightly colored pods.

While the social media trend is concerning, it’s not exactly a public health emergency. Nationally, the number of calls to U.S. poison control centers due to exposure to laundry pods has gone down from over 14,000 calls in 2016 to 12,299 in 2017. That’s a 14 percent decrease. 
The trend is similar in Colorado, which saw a 17.4 percent drop in calls, from 236 in 2016 to 195 last year (See Figure 1). We’ll be sure to keep an eye on how this develops in 2018, but like a shirt washed with cheap detergent, this trend is probably doomed to fade. 

If you or someone you know ingests a laundry pod, or any potentially toxic substance, call the national poison help hotline at 1-800-222-1222 or text POISON to 797979 to save the number in your phone.

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