Pediatric poisoning is a serious issue. According to a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, each year on average 33 children die due to unintentional poisoning, and in many cases, cleaning products were the culprit. In a recent two-year period, unintentional ingestion of a cleaning product was the second most common cause of pediatric poisonings. Cleaning products pose a heightened risk because their brightly-colored packaging and appealing scent often make them attractive to children.
According to a report published in the August issue of Pediatrics, using information obtained from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance system (NEISS), 267,260 children were treated for household cleaning product related injuries from 1990 to 2006. The vast majority (98.8 percent) of those injuries occurred in the home.
Despite decreases in the number of injuries from 22,141 in 1990 to 11,964 in 2006, one sector showed an increase: spray bottles. Injuries related to products contained in spray bottles, particularly eye injuries, increased from 30 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2006.
Bleach was the most commonly ingested product, and it was also the product associated with the highest percentage of injuries. It can cause damage to many of the mucosal membranes inside the body. Many people are aware that bleach can be very dangerous when it is combined with ammonia, as these two can react to form toxic chloramine gas, which can be fatal.