TOLEDO, Ohio — It's no secret that average household products like cleaners and batteries could lead to injury or death if consumed.
But did you know there's a facility right here in Toledo that works to make packaging safer for children?
During National Poison Prevention Week, people who focus on poison prevention all year round increase their awareness efforts.
Jan Hepler has been testing the safety and security of product packaging for more than 20 years in Toledo.
"Over 60,000 children go to the emergency room every year with medication overdoses, so that's what we are trying to prevent," Hepler said.
As a project manager for Great Lakes Marketing Research's Operation Safe Child division, Hepler believes every time a container goes through testing, a child's life gets safer.
"I have tested everything from a push-down-and-turn type bottle, we also test blister cards. It can be a spray bottle, a gasoline can, pool chemicals," Hepler said. "We are also the only company in the United States that tests child-resistant lighters."
The research facility president, Lori Dixon, said that after testing is complete, it's up to the public to read the instructions, store each product correctly and keep them out of the hands of children.
"Keep everything in the original packaging, keep it stored out of sight that's the main thing," Dixon said. "You know it's up and away so it's out of reach, but the key thing is it's out of sight so I'm not curious about it."
The National Poison Data System recorded painkillers, household cleaning substances, antidepressants and cosmetics as the most frequently involved products in human poison exposures in its 2022 report.
Now in 2024, Dixon said the country should be focused on the storage of cannabis and button cell batteries because of their increased presence within homes.
"The thing is, the edibles look just like candies and they are often not stored in the original child-resistant packaging. The children are getting confused, they see their parents eating them, they see parents are excited to eat them, they look just like all the other gummies that they've had, and they are being ingested accidentally," Dixon said. "So that's a big focus this year because as more states make it more easily available, there are gummies in households everywhere."
Research shows 4,000 Americans die from poison exposure every year. So the company continues to test, and testing participants are always needed.
"The data is extremely important and if a package was to fail and not meet the criteria then it does not go on the market and it must be redone," Hepler said.
Children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old can participate in the testing using placebo products. Families could make up to $50 if they help test the security of product packaging.
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