'Glitzy Products Raise Poisoning Risk At Home'

Household items in attractive packaging mistaken for being food are putting the elderly and children at risk, officials warned on Thursday.

The Hong Kong Poison Information Centre urged the public to beware of the risks as the city recorded 4,000 cases of poisoning last year. In 39 cases the person involved died, although 21 of them had taken their own lives.

But the report highlighted cases where people consumed poisons by mistake. In one case, an 80-year-old man ate three heat packs for breakfast over a period of five days before his family noticed what he was doing.

The man had mistaken the heat packs for a sesame dessert. Doctors later found iron powder in his gut and stool, but fortunately the man didn't fall ill.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old man reported a burning sensation in his throat after he ingested Japanese bath salts. He mixed the bath salts with water and drank them, thinking he was making instant sweet corn soup.

In another incident last year, two toddlers aged 15 and 17 months licked colourful drain-cleaning sticks resembling sweets before their parents stopped them from actually eating the highly corrosive products.

Associate Consultant at the Centre, Dr Chan Chi-Keung, urged parents to keep such products out of the reach of children.

“The adults didn’t keep the drain-cleaning sticks properly. When the kids go to the kitchen or go to the toilet, and find out this kind of new and colourful product, they think it is candy," he said.

"Any toddler would try to taste anything new but this kind of stick is quite alkaline if you dissolve it in water. If the kid takes the whole stick, it will cause corrosive injuries to the oesophagus and the stomach”, Chan warned.