Children's Recognition of Dangerous Household Products: Child Development and Poisoning Risk

Abstract

Developing cognition helps preliterate children distinguish safe from dangerous household products. Multiple aspects of product packaging may reduce child poisoning risk if implemented by industry or policy.

Assessing the Role of Shape and Label in the Misleading Packaging of Food Imitating Products: From Empirical Evidence to Policy Recommendation

“…Across a series of three studies, this article tests whether food imitating products generate ambiguity through consumers' biased (taste) inferences and judgments on product safety and drinkability, and specify which incongruent product form is implicated in this effect; drink shape or drink label. In doing so, these results complement previous studies on children (Schwebel et al, 2015 ) and adults (Basso et al, 2014 ) and confirm the disquieting idea that the closer a chemical product resembles food, the more likely it is to be confused with food and subsequently swallowed (Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety, 2011 ; see also: Lueder and Rice, 2008 ; Basso et al, 2010 ). In addition, these results may indicate strategies for protection against this resulting heightened exposure to accidental poisonings, showing how psychology can facilitate policymakers in addressing the dark and dangerous side of chemical consumer product embellishment.…”

“…Third, these studies were conducted on adult student participants and it is implicitly assumed that food imitating products causing confusion for adults will ipso facto be confusing for the most exposed and poisoned demographic; children (Basso et al, 2014 ). Recent experimental studies show that children are likely to consider shape, size, labeling, and color when deciding whether a product is edible/drinkable in order to avoid incurring foreseeable injury (Schwebel et al, 2015 ). Future studies seeking to administer the IAT to children (Baron and Banaji, 2006 ) should therefore be adapted to test the generalizability of our findings.…”

“…The scientific literature substantiates the assertion that public policy should encourage manufacturers to develop chemical consumer products labeled with symbols children can recognize (e.g., unappealing insects), in the upstream market. Opaque and squared packaging is preferable to the transparent and rounded variety, and should be made up of metal rather than plastic materials (Schwebel et al, 2015 ). In the downstream market, our results can aid public health policy efforts in several markets to address post-purchase food imitating products by focusing their market surveillance on chemical consumer products with a food or drink shape.…”

The exploration of size and toddler interaction with liquid laundry detergent capsules

“…There also are risk factors that emerge at the individual level in Bronfenbrenner's ecological model; these are factors that emerge from the children's own decisions and behaviours. Research in related domains suggests children may interact with different household products at different rates based on products' appearance-including their shape, colour and transparency; these factors could therefore influence children's risk of unintentional poisoning [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Research suggests the shape and colour of the product may be especially salient in young children's categorization of edible and non-edible products [17,21,22].…”

Design and Feasibility of a Safe Pill Bottle

“…First, medications are more available than ever in our homes. The presence of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, herbs, and dietary supplements near young children is extremely common, and the simple presence of dangerous items in the home increases the odds of young children encountering them and unintentionally poisoning themselves [3]. Second, because of our fast-paced lifestyles, adults might forget to properly store medicine away from children's reach, or a parent or grandparent might forget a pill bottle is in a handbag or briefcase.…”