London woman’s death after eating laundry pods prompts coroner’s warning

A coroner has issued a warning after a 93-year-old woman with dementia died after eating toxic laundry capsules she may have mistaken for sweets because of their bright packaging.

Elizabeth Van Der-Drift died from a combination of aspiration pneumonia, ingesting the laundry tablets, and dementia on 19 March this year. A carer told the inquest into her death that the capsules’ packaging “bore more than a passing resemblance to a bag of sweets”, according to a prevention of future deaths report (PFD).

The coroner Ian Potter warned that product safety regulations might pay “insufficient regard” to the risks posed to people with dementia.

Potter, an assistant coroner for inner north London, said in the PFD: “It has long been acknowledged that products of this nature can pose risks to children; however, there appears to be less acknowledgment of the risks posed to those living with dementia or other forms of cognitive impairment.”

He said the “bright, eye-catching colours” of such capsules were an “industry-wide phenomenon”. As a result, sending the warning to the individual manufacturer of the pods involved would be “shortsighted”, he said.

Instead, the report was issued to the chief executive of the Office for Product Safety and Standards, the secretary of state for health and social care, and the director general of the UK Cleaning Product Industry Association.

The coroner said he was “well aware” of the Food Imitations (Safety) Regulations 1989 but “it seems to me either that the regulations themselves have insufficient regard to those living with dementia or other cognitive impairment, or that the application of the regulations is not approached with sufficient rigour”.

The regulations prohibit the supply of products that are unfit for human consumption but are likely to be mistaken for food, and explicitly mention the risk to children.

Van Der-Drift lived with dementia for “a number of years” and regularly could not remember when she had last eaten food, he said. She would often “go in search of something to eat” and on 13 or 14 March “gained access to laundry detergent tablets [or] pods that were brightly coloured” and “bit into at least one of them”, he said.

The product was described as “predominantly bright pink and white, with orange, yellow and green also present”. The container had no “obvious design feature” that would make it difficult for someone with “even the most basic of manual dexterity” to access the “potentially sweet-like” pods, he said.

Shortly after consuming the product, Van Der-Drift was found complaining of stomach pain and shortness of breath. An ambulance was called and she died in hospital days later. The inquest found that her death was accidental.

Recipients of the PFD must respond to the report by 8 October this year with details of action taken or proposed to be taken, or why no action was taken, unless the coroner extends the period.