Tide Pod Challenge… this was seriously dangerous and TOXIC!

In late 2017 a new viral trend became popular on social media. It was called the Tide Pod Challenge. A Tide pod are small packets of laundry detergent designed to dissolve while washing clothes. (Lenton) The challenge consisted of people, mostly teens eating tide pods while live-streaming or posting a video on Youtube. It originally started out as a meme on twitter with people joking about eating tide pods. The outside wrapping of a tide pod is made of PVA, a water soluble plastic compound. It dissolves in the washing machine when in contact with water. However it can also dissolve quickly in a person’s mouth “leading to the immediate release and absorption” of extremely toxic chemicals. If ingested, it can lead to life threatening problems such as breathing issues, damage to the oesophagus, burns, gastrointestinal problems and loss of consciousness. This trend continued on into the beginning of 2018 and there was “at least thirty-nine reports of US teenagers intentionally misusing laundry pods in the first 15 days of 2018 alone, according to data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers.” (Lenton) The US consumer Product Safety Commission sent out PSAs urging people to stop doing this as it was could lead to fatalities. The company Tide also issued a statement telling people to only use the pods for cleaning purposes and should not be used as a joke.

A meme on Twitter joking about Tide pods caused  people to actually create a challenge of eating them. People watched and laughed at others spitting them out disgusted, wanting to try themselves. It was cautioned that these pods contained dangerous chemicals and could lead to health issues, however many teens ignored it and continued to participate and support the challenge. Without the use of social media, challenges like this wouldn’t be a thing. Twitter and Youtube spread the challenge to all parts of the globe. People participated and made memes about the product because it was mainstream and seen as trendy to participate in at the time. There was also memes making fun of people who ate tide pods which increased the popularity of the challenge even more. Humans are extremely connected through social media and the sense of “fitting in” and seeming on trend causes people to do stupid things to get views, likes and attention. People were putting their health at risk for the meme. It is weird to think that in 2018 social media consumes so much of our lives that people would voluntarily eat toxins. It just shows how far some are willing to go…