Chemicals used to clean dairy facilities and equipment, especially dairy pipeline cleaners, pose a special risk for children. Here are answers to some questions that will help you protect children that live on or visit your dairy.

What dairy chemicals are dangerous for children?
A dairy operation uses a variety of chemicals, both acid- and alkali-based for cleaning of the barns, parlors and equipment. Most of these preparations are highly concentrated, powerful cleaning agents formulated for industrial settings. Although any of these agents can cause injuries, the most dangerous are the alkali cleaners that are used to disinfect and clean residual milk out of pipelines.

How does alkali cleaner cause injury?
The alkalis used in dairies are generally solutions containing sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide and range in concentration from 8 to 25 percent. These products are many times more caustic than a common household alkali-based drain cleaner. These cleaners are so caustic that when they come in contact with skin or mucous membranes, they produce immediate chemical burns.

Some children who have swallowed liquid pipeline cleaners have had burns severe enough to perforate the esophagus. Some have died from these ingestions; others have required repeated surgeries to repair scarred tissues. The long-term risk for developing esophageal cancer is greatly increased in these children.

How common are injuries from pipeline cleaning products?
There is no single source of statistics for alkali ingestion on farms. We can get some sense of the problem by looking at individual studies in selected areas. A South Dakota study found 14 children were seen in emergency rooms in the Sioux Falls area over a five-year period for caustic farm product ingestion. A study of four hospitals in Wisconsin over a 10-year period showed 10 children were admitted for dairy pipeline cleaner ingestion. These injuries are very severe, and since they are entirely preventable, even one injury is one too many.

How do children gain access to these chemicals?
Unlike caustic household products, which are packaged in accordance with the federal Poison Prevention Packaging Acts, there are no childproof packaging requirements for these chemicals in agricultural or industrial settings. While children do not typically have access to industrial work areas, they can be present as family members or visitors in dairies.

For the cleaning products to be used, they must be transferred somehow to the equipment that needs to be cleaned. Some dairies use a closed system, where the cleaner is pumped directly into the pipeline. This is childproof and protects adult workers from spills and splashes as well. However, in many dairies, the alkali is stored in large containers and is either poured or pumped into another small container, which is then carried to a point where it can be poured into the systems.

It is during this transfer process that young children, especially toddlers who want to touch and taste everything, gain access to the caustic agent. Tragically, some dairies use glasses, cups, squirt bottles or other drinking containers for this transfer process, which makes the product even more attractive to the child.

What can be done to prevent these injuries?
Children should be separated from these chemicals at all times. One way to do this is simply to keep young children out of the milkhouse or chemical storage area. An additional safeguard is to use a closed system so the caustic agent is never in a container that can be accessed by children. Yet another prevention measure is to use packaging that is childproof. Some manufacturers have developed special transfer pumps and locking devices designed so young children cannot open them.

Finally, many dairy operators simply are not aware of how dangerous these caustic agents are. Please share this information with others, but don’t stop there. Awareness of the danger is not enough. Take one or more of the measures listed above and encourage others to do the same.  PD

—From National Farm Medical Center Marshfield Clinic website