Baby Safety Month: Cleaning Products
September is Baby Safety Month, a month set aside for parents and caregivers to educate themselves on the best ways to take care of their little ones.
One of the most common warnings a parent receives is to lock up their cleaning products: an unlocked cabinet under a sink would be very easily within the reach of a child between the ages of 1 and 2. Children at this age are exploring the world with their mouths, but have enough motor function to pull open doors and grab bottles.
So, with this in mind, how do the companies that create these products protect our most vulnerable population?
First of all, the vast majority of danger comes from spray bottles and dissolving detergent pods. Young children can easily operate spray bottles towards their face, and detergent pods look like food and fit into a child’s mouth.
Luckily, injuries from detergent pods have steadily declined since they were invented in 2012. Companies have developed safety measures for the pods such as a bitter taste and slow dissolving plastic. They are still a leading cause of detergent injuries, though, so they should still be kept in a childproof container or in a locked cabinet.
Spray bottles have had consistent numbers of injuries, especially due to bleach and other chemicals that should not be stored in spray bottles to begin with. Many households transfer cleaning products from their original packaging into spray bottles, but in households with small children, this practice can override important safety features.
If you have small children, be careful to keep cleaning products in their original packaging and store products in a high, hidden, and/or locked cabinet. When shopping, look for products with safe containers, such as liquid or powder detergents rather than pods, and save the poison help line number to your phone.
Much of creating a safe environment depends on safeguards that can be easily avoided or overridden, so a successful system (like a locked cabinet) is necessary to keep them working.
TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis helps your company craft successful systems like these. If you’re interested in learning how, you can contact us for a free briefing here.
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