Taking Care of the Little People

Yummy!

A cursory glance at the human race would indicate that there are children--those are the shorter people--who need looking after, and there are adults, usually taller, to do the looking. Sadly, this is not always true. Take, for example, the number of children who have ingested laundry detergent pods that look just like candy and are packaged and sold in what looks just like a big cookie jar. The selling and packaging are done by the adults, while the eating of the poison contained therein is done by the children.

A study just published in the medical journal Pediatrics reports that in 2012 and 2013, 17,230 children ingested some of that highly concentrated detergent in those cute little swirly blue and orange packets, like Proctor & Gamble's Tide Pods. Thankfully only one death occurred, although many children were hospitalized.

The manufacturers of these products are supposedly hard at work trying to amend the situation. They went so far as to put warning labels on the packages, and in some instances they even made the jars opaque so kids won't be able to see what's inside and be tempted to bite into one of the juicy packets, which then sends poison shooting down their gullets.

Hey, here's a good idea! In fact, two good ideas: First, they could stop making the pods altogether and sell detergent like the caveman did, in powder or liquid form and packaged in scary-looking boxes or bottles with a skull on the front and the word POISON in bold letters. Second, the people who buy the stuff, a.k.a. The Parents, could store it safely away from their kids, like on a high shelf or in locked in a closet, you know-- right next to their guns. I bet that would work.