Would you like some Dish Soap for Dinner?

Joe came home from work and opened his mailbox. In his mailbox, he found a yellow bottle of soap — soap for washing dishes.

The dish soap was a free sample from a soap company. The company had mailed free bottles of soap to millions of people.

It was a new soap with a little lemon juice in it. The company wanted people to try it.

Joe looked at his free bottle of soap. There was a picture of two lemons on the label. Over the lemons were the words “with Real Lemon Juice.”

“Good!” Joe thought. “A free sample of lemon juice! I’m going to have a salad for dinner. The lemon juice will taste good on my salad.” Joe put the soap on his salad and ate it. After Joe ate the salad, he felt sick.

Joe wasn’t the only person who got sick.

A lot of people thought the soap was lemon juice. They put the soap on fish, on salads, and in tea. Later, they felt sick, too. Some people had stomachaches but felt better in a few hours. Some people felt really sick and went to the hospital. Luckily, no one died from eating the soap.

What can we learn from Joe’s story?

Read labels carefully. And don’t eat dish soap for dinner!