Yes, Detergent Pods Are Plastic. No, You Shouldn’t Worry.

If PVA/PVOH is as safe as regulatory agencies and Big Laundry claim, why not fund a study that tests for it in drinking water or in wastewater treatment plants? I posed this question to several industry insiders, who claimed studies of this kind are inconclusive — no PVA/PVOH is being detected. This research includes yet-to-be-peer-reviewed experiments being performed by scientists at Procter & Gamble, who have been attempting to detect PVA/PVOH in waterways in Cincinnati (where the company is based) down to parts per billion, to no avail.

This would seem positive. But Joseph Zagorski, a toxicologist and assistant professor at Michigan State University who works for the Center for Research on Ingredient Safety (CRIS), explained that studies like these with “negative findings” — scientific experiments that find no significant effect — are notoriously challenging to publish. The scientific community has a general bias against them, in part because “negative findings” could easily come out of a lazily designed experiment.

Yet in Zagorski’s eyes, this leaves a gaping hole for a particular kind of product-swap marketing. Without published, peer-reviewed research showing that something is harmless — even something widely known to be safe by scientists — it’s easy to plant a seed of doubt. Especially on social media, he said, there are marketers “who weaponize that and use it as a point of sowing distrust or selling something.”

With its use of provocative imagery adjacent to published, peer-reviewed research, Blueland has mastered dramatic marketing on social media. For example, one Instagram post portrays an image of a lone laundry-detergent pod floating in a pool of breast milk — a not-so-subtle warning that breastfeeding mothers who use detergent pods are feeding their babies plastic.

At first, I too was alarmed by this image, which (like other ads on Blueland’s social media account and website) cites a research paper: A 2022 study conducted at a research university in Rome did detect PVA/PVOH in breast milk. That’s the grain of truth, the ribbon of credibility often found in alarming social media posts.

But a close look at the 2022 breast-milk study shows some stunningly narrow results: PVA/PVOH constituted just one microparticle in 34 samples of breast milk. And the source of that lone microparticle of PVA/PVOH is unclear.

Based on the color of the detected PVA/PVOH particle (brown), its source was most likely not detergent, which is colorless, said Matthew Vander Laan, vice president of corporate affairs and strategic planning at MonoSol, a major manufacturer of PVA/PVOH. He also explained that other analyses of the particle showed it lacked certain characteristics that are unique to detergent-grade PVA/PVOH.

MonoSol has a vested interest in keeping detergent pods on the market, but the company manufactures PVA/PVOH for many uses. MonoSol isn’t denying the presence of a microparticle of PVA/PVOH in a sample of breast milk. It’s saying that it doesn’t think it came from detergent pods.

Natalie Worthington, a certified lactation consultant who works at the Breastfeeding Center for Greater Washington, doesn’t think the source is detergent pods either. She explained that substances a nursing mother ingests or applies topically can make their way into breast milk, but that isn’t how detergent pods are used.

When I asked Worthington whether taking an extended-release pill or using cosmetics might explain PVA/PVOH’s presence in a breast-milk sample, she said it’s technically possible. It’s worth noting that some breastfeeding accessories can also contain PVA/PVOH.

In a written response, Paiji Yoo emphasized that even one breast-milk sample with a microparticle of PVA/PVOH suggests PVA/PVOH is “entering the human body and persisting in some form.” But PVA/PVOH is also a common ingredient in products that humans ingest and use topically.

Even the main author of the breast-milk study, Antonio Ragusa, an obstetrician who studies microplastics, acknowledged to me that there is currently no evidence of any detrimental effects of PVA/PVOH, stating that “the available studies show that this product [PVA/PVOH] is safe for humans.” He did, however, add that we might learn more in the future about the “long-term effects of a totally artificial substance like this.”

In that context, a whole detergent pod floating in breast milk could be seen as a largely inaccurate, and even irresponsible, depiction of the study.

“It’s less about the study itself and more about the marketing of the study,” said Paige Bellenbaum, a licensed clinical social worker and founding member of The Motherhood Center in New York City, which specializes in treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (known as PMADs). “It’s a breeding ground that invites new things to worry about and preys on some of our most vulnerable populations.”