Lawmakers in New York are pushing for a state law that would force manufacturers of Tide Pods to make the laundry products less appetizing looking. Each packet would be individually wrapped, and the bright colour palette would be ditched.

It seems like it’s coming a bit late, now all the hysteria surrounding the Tide Pod Challenge is over and the crisis in the poison control centres. 

Aravella Simotas and Brad Hoylman, both New York City Democrats, wrote a letter to Procter & Gamble, the company that owns Tide. As USA Today reports, the letter urges them to create safer products. The bill they’ve put forward would require the laundry pod packs to have child-safe packaging and labels that show it’s a hazardous household product.

“We want to make sure these poisonings are prevented. It’s easy. All we have to make sure is that public safety trumps their profits,” Simontas told a press conference. Their major concern is not with teens looking for validation by eating gooey, squishy pods and posting it to YouTube, but with accidental consumption by children or people with dementia. The current issue around the pods has just brought past concerns into light again.

“We’re asking for all laundry detergent pods to be uniform in colour. We don’t need them to look like Gummy Bears in order for consumers to use them,” Hoylman said. “We need to impose clear warning labels on all packaging, including each pod.”

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble has since responded. “There is nothing new in these legislative proposals” the group said. They claim packages are already child-resistance, and research from poison control confirmed the bright colours don’t majorly influence accidential consumption. The company rejected the idea of individual wrapping as “not helpful”. 

“Finally, consumers have a choice: Those who prefer single colored pac can use Tide Free and Gentle, which is all-white. Tide is also available in a liquid and powder product form,” the statement concluded.

The two politician’s letter details that 10,570 laundry pod injuries were recorded in 2017. As the Independent reports, they praised Tide’s recent PSA in response to the social media challenge, but asserted more needs to be done.

Read back on our investigation into the Tide Pod-eating phenomena here.