Procter & Gamble is recalling more than 8 million bags of Tide, Gain, Ace, and Ariel laundry detergent packets sold in the US and Canada due to a defect in the products' child-resistant packaging. According to Friday notices from both P&G and product-safety regulators in the US and Canada, the outer packaging meant to prevent easy access to the liquid laundry detergent pods can split open near the zipper track, posing serious risks to children and others who may ingest them, in addition to possible skin or eye injuries. So far, there have been no confirmed injuries directly tied to the defect, the AP reports.
During the time period that the recalled lots were sold, there were four reports of children accessing the laundry packets in the US, including three ingestion cases—but whether these pods actually came from the recalled bags is still unknown, P&G and the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The recall impacts select batches of Tide, Gain, Ace, and Ariel laundry detergents that were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024 and sold at major retailers including Walmart, Target, CVS, and Amazon. The recalled products, which can be identified by lot code, vary in scent and size. About 8.2 million were sold in the US, and more than 56,700 were sold in Canada.
Consumers in possession of the now-recalled bags are instructed to keep the products out of the reach and sight of children and contact Cincinnati-based P&G for a full refund and replacement child-resistant bag to store the detergent, which itself remains safe to use for laundry purposes. Health risks tied to the ingestion of liquid laundry detergent has been well-documented—notably in light of the social media-fueled "Tide Pod challenge" that skyrocketed several years ago, per the AP. Eating the detergents' chemicals can cause vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage, and even death.
(More
product recall stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
