The Tide Pod Challenge is not only the latest senseless trend that is making the rounds on the internet, but it is also very dangerous.
Some challenges that proliferate online are for a good cause, such as the 22 Push-Up Challenge and the Ice Bucket Challenge. However, the Tide Pod Challenge will do nothing but cause health issues to the people who take it, who are mostly teenagers.
The Tide Pod Challenge: Don't Do it
The Tide Pod Challenge requires participants to upload a video of themselves eating Tide Pods, which are small pods that contain laundry detergent. Some participants show the liquid oozing out of their mouths, while some even cook the laundry pods first, or place them on top of real food before eating them.
The trend started out as a joke, as the laundry pods look almost like candy due to their colors. However, the video compilation shows that the Tide Pod Challenge is growing in popularity, with more teens placing laundry pods in their mouths. The video was compiled by the channel appropriately named People Are STILL Idiots.
It goes without saying that laundry pods are not meant to be placed inside people's mouths, even if it is only a joke and the detergent is not actually ingested.
According to doctors, this can result in irritation and burns inside the mouth, which would lead to an embarrassing visit to the emergency room. Florida Poison Information Center managing director Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr. warned that swallowing even a small amount of the highly concentrated detergent in the laundry pods may result in life-threatening situations.
The Tide Pod Challenge has gotten so alarmingly popular that Proctor and Gamble, the parent company of Tide, has issued a statement on the trend.
"Our laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes and they're used safely in millions of households every day. They should be only used to clean clothes and kept up, closed and away from children. They should not be played with, whatever the circumstance is, even if it is meant as a joke," P&G said.
Dangerous Trends Kick Off 2018
Unfortunately, the Tide Pod Challenge is already the second dangerous trend of 2018. The first one is the proliferation of so-called raw water, which are glass orbs of unfiltered, untreated, and unsterilized spring water sold for $60.99 each.
Live Water, the company behind the expensive trend, claims that drinking raw water will help improve a person's health. Experts, however, are quick to remind people the simple fact that raw water is very unsafe to drink.
