Episode Transcript
Interviewer: Bleach, Visine, or laundry pods. Which one of those three things is the most dangerous for your child to swallow? We'll answer that question next on The Scope.
Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Interviewer: You're listening to this podcast. Go ahead, and this is the play along at home part. I'm going to give you three substances and I want you to think. Which one do you think is the most dangerous poison if you were to ingest it: bleach, Visine, or those little pods that you use in your laundry?
Barbara Crouch is with the Utah Poison Control Center. Out of those three items, give our audience a chance to think what that would be, I would say bleach. Is that the most dangerous?
Barbara: It's actually the least dangerous.
Interviewer: You're kidding me.
Barbara: No, no, it's not. Not that I recommend a diet of bleach or swallowing it, but it is upsetting to the stomach. It can make somebody throw up. But with the household bleach that's usually the worst thing that happens.
The Visine and products like that act chemically just like a blood pressure medication, so they can dangerously lower blood pressure. Children can have difficulty breathing with that medication.
Interviewer: How much would it take for that to start to happen?
Barbara: You know, nobody really knows, right? You have a Visine bottle that you keep in your pocket, so . . .
Interviewer: And they're not that big.
Barbara: They're not that big, so we don't really have a great idea of how much it takes. I couldn't tell you what the right amount is.
Interviewer: But there's enough in that little bottle in some instances to cause problems.
Barbara: Absolutely. Again, it acts just like a blood pressure medication. That's really on our list of things that are very dangerous in a dose.
Interviewer: Wow.
Barbara: So that's usually the most surprising thing in the household that's problematic. The laundry pods are new things and they're fairly dangerous as well. We're getting more information about those. They're very easy to squeeze so we've had a lot of problems with people getting it in their eye. It's very concentrated because you've got all of your laundry detergent right in one little teeny pod that's going to clean your entire laundry, so it's concentrated, it's irritating, and with children, when they've ingested them because they're extremely attractive, we've had children that have had effects that are far different than children swallowing a mouthful of regular laundry detergent. We've had children that have had difficulty breathing, that have had to have support for breathing with tubes and ventilator kind of things. Those are things that are relatively new the last couple years that we're watching, but we tend to see much more severe effects than what we typically expect with laundry detergent.
Interviewer: So out of those three things, you should always call Poison Control, even if it's bleach.
Barbara: Absolutely.
Interviewer: Make that phone call.
Barbara: 1-800-222-1222 is the Poison Center phone number.
Interviewer: And an expert can help you out.
Barbara: 24 hours a day, and it's free and confidential.
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