Sometimes it requires public outcry to cause lawmakers to rethink their policies. Making labels that are safe for children is a no-brainer, but sometimes the potential for danger escapes the public eye until it’s too late.
Slate recently posted an interesting piece meditating on the role that packaging and warning labels can play when it comes to “detergent pods.” These little packages, designed to be inserted into washing machines to avoid measuring wrongly, have been on the market for years, but a recent story in which a child died after consuming it by accident has brought the lethality of these items to the public attention.
The article’s author rightly questions the way these products are packaged and designed as possibly luring the attention of children.
“Most detergent pods are little rectangular packets in the shades of green or blue, small enough to fit in a child’s hand, squishy in a way that might make them appear like a toy,” the piece reads. “Procter & Gamble’s Tide Pods feature a round, swirly, white-orange-and-purple design that makes its laundry pods look unmistakably like candy.”
Obviously, no company sets out to create soap that could be mistaken as poison, which is why these labels can address problems afterward.
Although Tide has more secure containers, it’s still important that both the packaging and the labeling upon it convey a message of security and warning. Using a color label printer, the producer in charge of making these cleaning items can select symbols and language that reach the audience and perhaps discourage children from accidentally trying to eat them as well.
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