(Stock image/ Morguefile)

Premeasured and prepackaged, extremely concentrated and resembling candy, laundry detergent pods continue to be a danger to young children, new data shows.  

Introduced in 2012, laundry pods were marketed as an easier, mess-free alternative to traditional laundry detergent. However, the bright and colorful pods have been linked to the deaths of a 7-month-old and 16-month-old in 2013 and 2014, as well as thousands of calls made to poison control centers across the U.S. according to the new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Due to the highly concentrated contents of laundry detergent pods, children who bite down on the pods often experience extreme symptoms, including vomiting, wheezing, breathing problems, coughing, sleepiness, and sometimes death, according to the American Association of Poison Control.  

A total of 43,886 calls were made to poison control centers across the U.S. with 17 cases of a coma, 6 cases of breathing issues, 4 cases of fluid in the lungs, and 2 cases of death from 2012 to 2016, according to the most recent report from AAPC. 

Lawmakers even introduced the Detergent Poisoning And Child Safety Act in 2015 that would require stricter safety standards for the pods.  

The bill was put on hold after manufacturers agreed to make changes on their own.

In September 2015, manufacturing companies like Procter & Gamble Co. redesigned their laundry detergent pods by making the containers opaque, adding more warning labels, and coating the pods with a bitter tasting substance. Along with these changes, a national ad campaign was launched to bring awareness and reduce the accidental dangers of young children ingesting the pods. 

“The most important thing is to realize that these can potentially be a danger, given that realization, keep them out of reach from kids,” Ed Bottei, M.D., of the Iowa Poison Control Center said. 

“Keep them in the containers, they have screw top lids now to make it harder for kids to get into. Put them high up on a shelf, keep the containers out of reach,” he added.

Overall, according to the new data from the pediatrics study, there’s been a 17 percent increase from 2013 to 2014 of laundry detergent pod exposure even with manufacture changes. The researchers say there needs to be “increased efforts to prevent exposure of young children to these products.”