Tide Pod Challenge Should Be a Wake Up Call for Everyone

Have you heard of the Tide Pod Challenge? The challenge has been going on for a while, but now Proctor & Gamble is trying to do something to stop it. The challenge is completely dangerous, so warn your kids about it. They should never try it. This year alone, Poison Control Centers have “handled 39 cases of intentional misuse among 13 to 19 year olds. Poison control centers handled 53 such cases for all of last year.” This rising trend is alarming!

Unfortunately, colorful Tide Pods have been glorified ever since they were created. I recently heard the term Tide Pod cake and even restaurants are making Tide Pod pizza. It’s insane!

Even football star Rob Gronkowski is warning people to stop eating the pods. Thanks for your service announcement Gronk, but can you also warn people to stop using it as a laundry detergent too?

Tide Laundry Detergent is Poisonous

Since Tide Pods were introduced in 2012, Poison Control Centers have received more than 9,500 reports of children 5 & under coming in contact with, or ingesting pods. In order to halt that trend, P&G created a double-latch lid to deter young children from opening up the containers. They have also developed new pod containers which are no longer clear, so it doesn’t look like a candy container.

As someone who can’t even walk down the laundry detergent aisle at a grocery store without getting reactions, removing toxic laundry products is something in which I’m passionate about. I really hope that the Tide Pod Challenge will be a wake up call for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers.

Stop to Think What You’re Buying

Recently, I was in line at a Walmart store. The ladies in front of me had a canister of Tide pods. I overheard the one lady say to the other lady, have you heard how kids are eating these and they’re destroying their mouths? It eats away at everything. Then she walked up to the self checkout and purchased the pods. I was just dumbfounded! If there’s proof at how bad they can destroy you when ingested, why would you want to use that same toxic substance to wash your clothes? The leftover residue from the detergent is on all of your clothes. You wear it 24/7. You breath it in. It gets absorbed into your skin from your clothes. You might not receive the immediate reaction of having to go to the hospital like those who are ingesting it, but your reaction might take longer and develop in the form of a rash, headache, hormone disruption, or worse.

Laundry Ingredients Are Anyone’s Guess

Did you know that laundry product manufacturers are not required to list all of their laundry ingredients on their product package. You may never fully know what chemical soup you are using to clean your clothes. It is up to the manufacturer to choose if they want to disclose their product ingredients. Fortunately, there are some manufacturers who are disclosing ingredients on their own. They provide more natural laundry product alternatives which I recommend using instead of the toxic big-name commercial products.

In 2017, Procter & Gamble announced that it will share online its fragrance ingredients for its entire product portfolio in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2019. How many different chemicals do they use to create their fragrances? More than 2000! That’s insane! That doesn’t even include all of the other ingredients which are in their products.

What’s in a Tide Pod and Their Other Laundry Detergents?

Let’s take a look at what’s in Tide laundry detergent. At least the ingredients we’re aware of. On the Tide website, they mention that “every Tide detergent contains many ingredients with long, complicated names.” Honestly, that should make one stop and think before purchasing. Whether it’s food or everyday household products, if I can’t pronounce an ingredient, I tend not to want to buy it.

Here are the most common ingredients in Tide detergents:

• Alcohol Ethoxylate (AE)
• Alkyl Ethoxy Sulfate (AES) and Alkyl Sulfate (AS)
• Amine Oxide
• Citric Acid
• Cyclodextrin
• Enzymes
• Ethanol
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS)
• Percarbonate
• Perfumes
• Polyethylene Glycols (PEG), Polyethylene Oxide (PEO) or Polyoxyethylene (POE)
• Polymers
• Polyvinyl Alcohol

Think Tide Purclean is any better? Check out these ingredients:

• Water
• Sodium laureth 1.0 sulfate
• Propylene glycol
• Laureth-9
• Sodium citrate
• Lauramine oxide
• Sodium hydroxide
• Sodium cocoate
• Ethanol plant based solvent
• Polyethyleneimine ethoxylate
• Polyethyleneimine ethoxylate propoxylate
• Sodium tetraborate
• Pppentasodium pentetate
• Tide purclean™ perfume
• Calcium formate
• Protease
• Amylase

Oh, and remember what I mentioned above about over 2000 ingredients which can be used in a fragrance? Tide Purclean’s fragrance is honey lavender. Here are some of the ingredients which make up that scent:

• BENZYL ACETATE
• CITRONELLOL
• CYCLOPROPANECARBOXYLIC ACID 2-[1-(3,3-DIMETHYL CYCLOPRO
  CYCLOHEXYL)ETHOXY]-2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER
• ETHYLENE BRASSYLATE
• GERANIOL
• HEXYL SALICYLATE HEXYL SALICYL
• HEXYLCINNAMAL
• LIMONENE
• LINALOOL
• METHYLDIHYDROJASMONATE
• ORANGE OIL, EXPRESSED
• PHENETHYL ALCOHOL
• TERPINEOL
• TETRAMETHYL ACETYLOCTAHYDRONAPHTHALENES
• TRICYCLODECENYL ACETATE
• UNDECALACTONE
• 2-ISOBUTYL-4-METHYLTETRAHYDRO-2H-PYRAN-4-OL

This doesn’t seem too pure or clean to me!

These are just some of the ingredients which might be in Tide laundry detergents. While P&G tries to give nice definitions for each of these ingredients, the Environmental Working Group sees it differently. The EWG is a go to resource for checking to see if products are safe. They rate products according to the toxicity of their ingredients from ‘A’ to ‘F’.

Tide Laundry Detergent is Toxic

So how does Tide Pods rate on the EWG website? They all have a ‘F’ rating, but their Free & Gentle pods get a ‘D’. Their pods have ingredients which can cause skin irritation, asthma, reproductive and developmental toxicity, and even cancer. None of Tide’s laundry detergents receive over a ‘D’ rating with the majority receiving ‘F’.

Please stop and consider what you are using as laundry detergent. If I get reactions just from walking past the Tide display at a grocery store (not to mention how I smell their chemicals on the items that I bring home from the grocery store), I have to wonder why someone would want to be enveloped in those chemicals on their clothes and seeping into their skin around the clock. There are healthier alternatives. Here are some healthier recommendations.

Read Next: Are You Using Toxic Laundry Detergent?

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