The health risk is low. The yuck factor is high.
A physicians group warned Wednesday that dozens of Texansmistakenly drank a mild cleaning product that happens to look like asports drink.
Fabuloso is a buck a bottle at some Roanoke stores, deliciouslycolored and fits comfortably in the hand. Its purpose, however, iscleaning floors and toilets.
But researchers with the American College of Emergency documented94 cases of accidental ingestion during the first four months of theyear across Texas. Many were children under 6, the group said.
Medical researchers, who plan to release a study Monday, blame theconfusion on what they call a poor choice of packaging thatdistributor Colgate-Palmolive Co. needs to correct.
'People should be aware that children especially may be confusedand try to drink it,' said a statement attributed to Dr. DavidMasneri of the research team.
Colgate said Wednesday that it began shipping Fabuloso with a'child-safety cap' in September to 'protect against misuse.' Fabulosohas been on the market since 1997, meets standards of the U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission and bears a picture of a mop andbucket and the words 'multi-use cleaner' on the label, said a companystatement.
The cleaning agent, which is made in Mexico (hence the name, whichis Spanish for 'fabulous'), was available Wednesday online and instores in colors reminiscent of popular lime green, purple, blue andred sports drinks.
'It looks like something a kid would pick up and drink,' saidshopper Lou Bousman, who viewed a reporter's display of Gatoradeproducts beside Fabuloso at Cave Spring Corners on Wednesday. 'That'svery misleading.'
Three other shoppers distinguished between the drink and thecleaning agent but acknowledged confusion is possible.
'I would not buy it if I had kids,' said April Saunders, firstassistant store manager at Dollar General, where the Fabuloso waspurchased.
Vivian Sanchez-Jones, school liaison officer with Refugee andImmigration Services in Roanoke, said Fabuloso is widely used byHispanics and carried in ethnic markets in the Roanoke Valley. Shehas never heard of anyone ingesting it, and the Blue Ridge PoisonCenter had not received any ingestion reports.
Christopher Holstege, medical director of the poison center, saidthe danger from drinking Fabuloso is minimal. For one, most peoplewill stop after a sip.
'Most people are going to drink it, say 'That tastes bad!' and notdrink large quantities,' Holstege said. 'It will be like drinkingdishwasher liquid or washing machine detergent.'
And while it sounds dangerous to swallow those things, it would bemore irritating than harmful. In fact, the poison center recommendsthat anyone drinking Fabuloso -- or any similar product -- call themfirst.
'We can save you a trip to the hospital,' said Kathy Mayo, a nurseat the Blue Ridge Poison Center.
Dr. Mark Levsky was among a group of Texas emergency room doctorswho noticed a common complaint among some emergency room patients:ingestion of Fabuloso. That led to a detailed analysis of Texaspoison control records. During the project he drank some.
'It smells like it would taste good. It really doesn't have muchtaste,' Levsky said in an interview. 'It tastes like soap, which isbasically what it is.'
Staff writer Andrew Kantor contributed to this report.
