By Serena Ng 

U.S. makers of laundry detergent packets agreed with consumer safety advocates on a new voluntary standard aimed at reducing the high rate of accidents involving young children who have been injured by the popular household products.

The industry standard, a first for laundry packets, sets out specifications for the inner and outer packaging of the products, ping-pong-ball-size capsules that contain highly concentrated liquid detergent and other chemicals inside a soluble film.

Detergent manufacturers agreed to house the capsules in opaque containers that are difficult for children to open, and coat the capsules in a bitter or foul-tasting substance to deter children from biting into them. The capsules would also be made to withstand a certain amount of force to reduce the risk of bursting when squeezed.

More than 35,000 children aged 5 and younger in the U.S. have had accidents involving the laundry packets since the products were rolled out widely in 2012, according to data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Several individuals died after ingesting the concentrated detergent, and hundreds of children were hospitalized for serious injuries including breathing problems, repeated vomiting, corneal abrasions and central nervous system depression.

In the year to date, U.S. poison centers received more than 1,000 calls a month about young children who came into contact with laundry packets, or a rate of around 34 a day.

The American Cleaning Institute, an industry group whose members include detergent manufacturers, said Friday it welcomed the approval of the new protective measures in the standard, which it said are designed to help reduce further incidents.

Detergent manufacturers including Tide Pods maker Procter & Gamble Co., Purex manufacturer Henkel AG and All detergent maker Sun Products Corp. have been making changes to their product packaging and adding more warning labels to try to address the problems. Even so, accident numbers remained high, leading consumer safety advocates and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to pressure the manufacturers to do more.

Several companies earlier this summer said they were already preparing to implement the measures set out in the new standard, which follows similar changes enacted in Europe

The U.S. standard was developed over more than a year of discussions between detergent manufacturers and consumer safety advocates under the auspices of ASTM International, a voluntary standards-setting body. Some members of the committee developing the standard had voted against it, saying it didn't go far enough to keep children safe. The dissenters withdrew their negative votes this week after the group agreed to review the effectiveness of the new standard within months of its implementation.

Nancy Cowles, executive director at Kids In Danger, a nonprofit that advocates for children's safety issues, earlier submitted a negative vote because the standard didn't require child-resistant packaging for the laundry packets. She said she wants to see evidence in the coming months that accidental exposures are declining.

"We are talking absolute numbers -- that's what we want to see a drop in, " Ms. Cowles said. "What's important is how many children are being injured, and not the rate of injuries relative to how much companies are selling."

U.S. sales of laundry detergent packets grew nearly 30% in the year to March to $873.5 million and now make up around 12% of the overall laundry detergent market by volume, according to market research firm IRI.

Write to Serena Ng at serena.ng@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 04, 2015 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)