San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog
Household products have evolved a great deal in recent years. Cleaning has increasingly become about power and efficiency. The faster we can clean up a mess or finish with a chore, the better. These products also cannot entirely escape the “cool” factor. They need to catch our eyes so we grab them off the shelves and want to buy them over and over. All of these factors have led to cleaning supplies that look like food or candy, making them enticing to children. Unfortunately, more modern packaging has increased the number of poisonings, side effects, and injuries in children across the nation. If your child was hurt due to a cleaning product that too closely resembled food or candy, you may want to contact a San Francisco product liability attorney at Brod Law Firm to learn about your right to recover compensation.
Hundreds of Children are Poisoned Every Day
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 300 children in the U.S. are treated in emergency rooms every day as a result of poisoning. Two die each day. These poisonings result from children ingesting all types of household items and cleaners, not just obvious chemicals. Children can be severely injured or killed due to eating or drinking medications, cleaners, detergents, nail polish and removers, makeup products, animal and insect repellants and poisons, alcohol, and vape or electronic cigarette liquids.
Dangerous Look-a-Likes
The issue with many cleaning products are not that they theoretically look like food or candy to children. Instead, these products’ packaging can closely resemble an actual product you might buy for your kids. Pine-Sol, Lysol, and other liquid cleaners may look like sports drinks, juice, or soda. Liquid medication such as antibiotics, laxatives and over-the-counter cold medications can look like juice and soda. Also, some laxatives come in the form of a chocolate bar or certain OTC and prescribed medications resemble chewable candies like Skittles and M&Ms.
Products Look Like Candy
Part of the fun and appeal of candy is that it comes in types of shapes, sizes, and colors. There is an endless variety of looks and flavors. While this diversity sells candy, it also means household products can look like they should be candy, even if they do not resemble a current product on the market. In addition to looking like safe foods and drinks, household products often smell sweet or tasty. A child might pick something up thinking it is candy and then have the smell confirm it is probably sweet or sugary. Laundry pods have been particularly dangerous in recent years. Calls to poison control centers increased 17% from 2013 to 2014, and researchers place much of the blame on colorful and enticing laundry detergent packets, CNN reported.
Household products that have been mistaken by children for edible candy, food, or beverages include:
- Fragrant and colorful candles, oils, and melting waxes
- Small and brightly colored laundry detergent tablets
- Bite-sized and multi-colored dish detergent packets
- Small, round mothballs
- Small magnets
- Colorful and gel-like air fresheners and room deodorizers
- Bright blue window and all-purpose cleaners
Ingesting a household product can lead to skin and throat irritations, burns, vomiting, and eye injuries. The more toxic products can cause children to stop breathing, go into cardiac arrest, have seizures, go into comas, and die.
California Products Liability Claim
While parents and childcare workers are required to keep kids safe, there may be cases in which the designer, manufacturer, or seller of a product is responsible for a child’s poisoning, injury, or death. Manufacturers are required by law to create products that are safe when used as intended or during reasonable foreseeable misuses. This can also require designing childproof packaging and including the necessary warning labels.
Call a San Francisco Products Liability Attorney Today
If your child was poisoned by a household product and you believe a defective design, defective manufacturing, or lack of warning led your children to be able to get a hold of the product and eat or drink it, call Brod Law Firm today. We can review your situation and explain your legal rights, including whether you may have the right to recover compensation.
Call us today at 1 (800) 427-7020 to schedule a free consultation.