By David E. Hubler
Contributor, EDM Digest
While U.S. healthcare authorities battle a nationwide flu epidemic and opioid crisis, American youngsters are giving them something else to worry about.
Kids are biting into those brightly colored packets of liquid laundry detergent or cooking them first in frying pans. Then, they bite into them and spew the soap out of their mouths, The Washington Post reported.
Experts say the practice, dubbed the “Tide Pod Challenge,” is dangerous.
“You’re really taking a chance — and to what end?” Alfred Aleguas, managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, told the Post last week. “It’s pretty foolish behavior.”
It’s not clear how the Tide pod fad got started. In 2013, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning to parents about the danger of small children ingesting the colorful but “highly concentrated, toxic detergent” that can cause harm.
Eight Fatalities Reported in Children under Five Since 2012
Since 2012, eight fatalities have been reported among children five years old and younger, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
The AAPCC said poison control centers around the country received reports last year of more than 10,500 children younger than five who were exposed to the pods. Nearly 220 teens were reportedly exposed and about 25 percent of those cases were intentional.
So far in 2018, there have been 37 reported cases among teenagers — half of them intentional, according to the Post.
Swallowing the capsules often causes mild stomach upset, if there are any symptoms at all. But poison center experts say the new, highly concentrated single-load liquid laundry detergent packets seem to be different.
“Children who have been exposed to the capsules have been hospitalized with vomiting, breathing difficulties and loss of consciousness. And the consequences may be much worse,” the Post said.
Steps Being Taken on Social Media to Stem the Tide Pod Challenge
Tide’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, said in a statement that it is “working to stop the ‘Tide Pod Challenge.’”
P&G CEO David Taylor called the trend “dangerous” and “extremely concerning” in a blog post Monday, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. He said Procter and Gamble is working with social media companies to remove videos of people biting into the detergent pods.
Taylor also asked adults to speak with their children about the hazards. “Let them know that their life and health matter more than clicks, views and likes,” he said.
The company also released a 20-seond public service announcement on social media, featuring New England Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski telling viewers not to ingest the pods. “What the heck is going on, people?” he asks. “Use Tide pods for washing, not eating.”
YouTube and Facebook are also cracking down on media content related to the pod problem, Fox Business reported.
YouTube will “work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies,” spokeswoman Jessica Mason said in a statement. “YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm.”
Facebook’s “community standards don’t allow encouragement of physical harm or content that is promoting or encouraging behavior that could lead to self-injury or death,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fox. “We have and will continue to remove any of this material as soon as we’re aware of it.”
To report exposure to laundry detergent pods:
- Call the national poison hotline at 1-800-222-1222. or
- Text POISON to 797979 to save the number on your phone.
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