Tide Pod Challenge: 5 Things To Know About Dangerous Teen Craze

You never know what teens are going to come up with next to entertain themselves on the internet, and the latest fad — called the “Tide Pod Challenge” — is dangerous and can be deadly. The challenge is to pop the laundry detergent pods in their mouths on a dare.

The brightly colored pods, which can resemble candy to some children, contain a highly toxic mix of ethanol, hydrogen and polymers that is far more dangerous when ingested than traditional laundry detergent. At least 10 deaths have been attributed to the pods, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and the American Association of Poison Control Centers said that in 2017, there were more than 10,500 reported exposures to the highly concentrated detergent by children age 5 and younger.

Those ingestions were accidental, but teens are popping the Tide Laundry Pods in their mouths on purpose, then video recording themselves as they attempt to eat it. Of course, Tide isn’t the only company brand offering the convenience of pre-packaged laundry detergent. The concentrated laundry packets are also known by such trade names as Pods, Mighty Pacs, Power Pacs, PowerBlasts, PowerCore Pacs and Flings.

Here are five things to know about the craze:

How did the Tide Pod Challenge start? It seems to stem from a post on the satirical website The Onion picturing a little boy under the headline “So Help Me God, I’m Going To Eat One Of Those Multicolored Detergent Pods.” The tongue-in-cheek post followed a report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers that the laundry packets pose a serious risk to children. The craze gained more traction last March with College Humor’s “Don’t Eat the Laundry Pods,” which shows a college student trying to resist the colorful packets, then gorging himself before ending up on an emergency backboard, where he proclaims “I don’t regret it.”

What happens when you eat a laundry detergent pod? Some children who have gotten into the pods have experienced excessive vomiting, wheezing and gasping, and some have had such severe breathing problems that they had to be put on a ventilator, according to the AAPCC. The group also said it had fielded reports of corneal abrasions when the detergent gets into a child’s eye.

Who else is at risk? The nonprofit consumer organization Consumer reports said the laundry detergent pods can be lethal to adults with dementia who may mistake them as edible. An 87-year-old Texas woman with dementia died two days after eating two packets. She was among six adults with dementia who died under similar circumstances from 2012 to early 2017, the Consumer Products Safety Commission disclosed after Consumer Reports filed a Freedom of Information Act request. As a result, Consumer Reports advised that anyone caring for cognitively impaired adults should not keep the packets in their homes.

Has anyone called for a ban on laundry detergent packets? No, but Consumer Reports discourages their use and various organizations have called on companies making them for better packaging. The trade group American Cleaning Institute says manufacturers are fully committed to reducing accidental exposure to the products.

What does Procter & Gamble, which makes Tide, have to say about the challenge? Patch reached out to P&G for a comment on the craze. In a statement, the company said: “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 meant as a joke.”

(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)