Standards Development

Scope

Requirements and test methods for household liquid laundry detergent capsules (packets) to improve the safety of these product and prevent pediatric accidents

Purpose

Liquid laundry detergent capsules (packets) are a relatively new way of delivering detergents. They help consumers use just the right amount of detergent for their washing needs and to reduce contacts and spilling when used. They are used daily by millions of consumers. This was made possible by putting all the active ingredients of a liquid detergent into one small capsule (concentrated ingredients). This capsule dissolves with water inside the washing machine, and then releases the liquid detergent to do its job.

Whilst they are safe when used and stored as instructed on the product package, it is important to store them in a safe place before and after use, and always keep them out of reach of children. For safety, the capsules are designed to resist a certain pressure and to not dissolve too quickly in order to reduce the possibility that if a child puts a capsule into its mouth, which is moist, and bites into it, the watersoluble film that contains the detergent may break and releases its content. This can lead to exposure in the mouth and eyes . The most common clinical effects in young children are vomiting and eye irritation.

A significant number of accidental exposures involving children under the age of 6 have been reported by Poison Centres in several EU countries and 55 centers across the US, in regard to liquid household laundry detergents in soluble films for single use (add links). Incidents involving young children are mainly caused because the liquid household laundry detergents were not correctly stored out of reach of children (EU liquicaps 2015 report). Exposure can result in severe health symptoms and led to some hospitalizations.

As a result of those accidental exposures, several actions were taken to address this issue. In 2012, the European detergents industry introduced the voluntary A.I.S.E. Product Stewardship Programme for liquid laundry detergent capsules. The Programme led manufacturers to undertake packaging modification by moving from transparent to opaque or obscure packaging and reinforced closures to limit access of children; prominent extra labelling on the outer package and consumer education to point consumers to the need for safe storage and handling of the products and the need to always keep them away from children. The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) issued similar safety guidelines for manufacturers in 2012.

On 5 December 2014, European regulators adopted an amendment to the CLP Regulation (Regulation (EU) N° 1297/2014, the "Soluble Packaging Regulation") building on the key activities of the detergents industry, and the voluntary A.I.S.E. Product Stewardship Programme for liquid detergent capsules. This regulation required that products have to be delivered in opaque or obscure outer packaging, always bear the precautionary statement "Keep out of reach of children” and have closures that are difficult for small children to open. All the soluble films of the capsules will also have to meet a given resistance strength to retain their liquid content for at least 30 seconds when immersed in water, and to contain a safe aversive agent that causes a fast repulsive reaction in case of accidental contact with the mouth. A.I.S.E. has developed technical guidelines on the implementation of the EU Commission ‘Soluble Packaging Regulation’. The guidelines provide practical tools and advice on mandatory measures concerning the outer packaging and the ‘soluble film’ (i.e. the capsule itself):

Advice concerning the reduced visibility of the capsules through the ‘outer packaging’;

Advice concerning P102 on-pack labelling (safe use instructions); General considerations related to ‘child-impeding closures’;

A protocol for measuring oral rejection time and thereby determine effective levels of aversive agent in the soluble film;

A test protocol for measuring the liquid containment function of soluble packaging;

A dynamometric test protocol for measuring the mechanical integrity of the soluble packaging.

Finally, in 2015 ASTM International published Standard F3159-15, “Standard Safety Specification for Liquid Laundry Packets”; this provides requirements for household Liquid Laundry Detergent Packet safety to help reduce unintentional exposures of children to the contents of the packets. This standard was also based on the EU CLP "Soluble Packaging Regulation" n. 1297/2014 and on the A.I.S.E. Guidelines on CLP implementation for liquid laundry detergent capsules.

Several studies have shown that the introduction of the above mentioned safety measures resulted in a significant decrease of accidental exposures and the severity of the accidents adjusted to account for population growth and market growth of the product (see EU Liquicaps report, EU poison centres data, US data to be added)

As this category product is becoming worldwide available, this is an international topic, which should be dealt with in an ISO standard to protect consumers, in particular young children, worldwide. The proposed International standard should set global safety requirements for Household Liquid Detergent Capsules (Liquitabs), based on the requirements currently in place in EU and presented in the ASTM International standard; this should include requirements on packaging, soluble film, aversive agent, label warning, relevant test methods, etc.