The Hidden Dangers of Household Cleaning Products
Parents often warn their kids about the potential dangers lurking in the outside world, but there are plenty of serious hazards and health risks inside the home. Accidental home injuries among children are a leading cause of pediatric emergency room visits in the United States. These include poisonings, burns, choking and more.
Obvious culprits like knives and button batteries are partly responsible, but also common products we use every day. Household cleaners are also a major driver of injuries inside the home, especially among young children, according to a new study published in Pediatrics on April 2, 2026. Despite advances in safety, child-resistant packaging and education, cleaning product-related injuries aren’t falling among children — in fact, they’re increasing.
“What surprised me is we are still seeing so many visits to emergency departments associated with very common household cleaning products,” Lara McKenzie, Ph.D., senior author of the study and principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, tells .
Key Findings from the Study
In the study, researchers analyzed 16 years of data on household cleaning product-related injuries among children ages 5 and younger in the U.S. Between 2007-2022, nearly 250,000 young children were treated in emergency departments for injuries caused by cleaning products, researchers found. That’s one injury every 35 minutes.
The injury rate among young children increased from 4.6 in 10,000 in 2007 to 6.3 in 10,000 in 2022. The most common diagnoses were poisonings, chemical burns, rashes and conjunctivitis. Most injuries involved younger children, ages 1 or 2.
Bleach: A Leading Cause of Injuries
Among all cleaning products, bleach accounted for about 30% of all injuries, followed by detergents which accounted for 28%, McKenzie says. Most of these injuries occurred because the bleach products or detergents were either ingested or came into direct contact with the skin or eyes, the research shows.
Bleach, aka sodium hypochlorite, is commonly used on its own or found in cleaners for bathrooms and kitchens. It’s used to remove stains, kill mold and mildew, and disinfect surfaces. Swallowing bleach can cause nausea, vomiting and stomach pain — if you ingest a larger amount or higher concentration of bleach, it can cause severe gastrointestinal damage and death, per the National Capital Poison Center.
“It’s a perennial issue because we all have these cleaners in our homes, and I think people may have even taken cleaning up a notch since COVID, too,” says McKenzie. The rate of bleach-related injuries has remained high since 2007.
Detergents and Their Risks
Detergents are synthetic, condensed cleaning agents which contain surfactants to clean oil and dirt off of clothing, dishes and more. The rate of detergent-related injuries has changed significantly since 2007. “There was a huge spike in injuries that came from the introduction of laundry and dish detergent packets around 2012,” says McKenzie. The new, seemingly convenient detergent pods led to a wave of poisonings among kids.
Ingesting detergent can cause throat irritation, choking, coughing, nausea, vomiting and even burn the lining of the esophagus or cause respiratory distress, per the NCPC. Detergent packets are now a main source of household cleaner-related injuries among children, accounting for about 33% of injuries — many of these were among toddlers.
Other cleaning products that commonly cause injuries among children include acidic products (toilet bowl cleaners, descalers, rust removers), alkali products (lye, degreasers, drain cleaners) as well as turpentine, pine oil, spot removers. “Almost everything we use to clean will cause injury,” says McKenzie.
Spray Bottles: An Added Risk
In addition to the type of cleaning agent, the way it’s packaged makes a big difference, says McKenzie. Products in packets or pods were a main source of injuries among children, likely because they resemble candy or small toys. However, McKenzie says products in spray bottles are also a major issue. “How it’s dispensed is what makes it dangerous … and what stood out to me is we’re still seeing many injuries among young kids from spray bottles,” says McKenzie.
Unlike pods, spray bottles have been around for a very long time. “We’ve seen that young kids do know how to operate spray bottles or similar dispensing systems,” says McKenzie. Despite this, spray bottle designs haven’t changed much. Young children learn by mimicking adults, she adds, so they often find out by watching others clean. “Spray bottles remain a really important source of injury for kids, which just shows us we haven’t made the strides we need to in terms of making spray bottles child-resistant.”
Toddlers Are More Capable Than You Think
Cleaning product injuries most often involved children ages 1 and 3, the researchers found. Most parents are well aware that toddlers can and will get into everything. That includes child-resistant products. Most children this age are mobile and gaining dexterity. Their fine motor skills are taking off. However, they have not let learned to read or write, McKenzie notes, and have limited cognitive abilities to understand the risks of certain items and household products.
Combine this with intense curiosity and sheer willpower, it makes toddlers highly vulnerable. “We know from decades of data showing kids will get into this stuff,” says McKenzie.
How To Keep Kids Safe
Nothing is 100% child-proof, McKenzie notes. But there are ways to reduce the risk of injury — and no, you don’t need to get rid of your bleach, detergent pods and other cleaners. Swapping these out for “non-toxic” or “all-natural” household cleaners isn’t necessarily the answer. “None of that is safe to be ingested or sprayed into their face either,” McKenzie adds.
The best strategy is to make it as hard as possible for children to access cleaning products, says McKenzie — even if the packaging is “child-resistant.” “That doesn’t mean kids can’t get into it. It just buys you more time for them to not get into it,” she says. Always keep products in their original containers with their labels, and store them in cabinets that are out-of-reach for children or locked.
“Put the Poison Help line number (1-800-222-1222) in your cell phone,” says McKenzie.
