Doctors Warn Against New Viral 'Tide Pod Challenge'

Clearly not content with eating Doritos and snogging at the back of cinemas, the new thing that teenagers are up to now is the 'Tide Pod Challenge', which involves people videoing themselves putting a pod of Tide laundry detergent into their mouth - and eating it.

Credit: Instagram / Ethan Breinholt

There are also similar videos of people popping the pods into their morning bowl of cereal or topping their pizzas with them. Grim, eh?

Now this should probably go without saying, but laundry detergent isn't supposed to be ingested. This means that the viral dare has become a bit of a worry - especially considering some of the participants look pretty young, as we'd imagine the adverse effects could be even worse on younger bodies.

The packaging for the detergent explains that the pods 'May be harmful if swallowed'.

So what are the risks, other than what we're imagining is a truly rank taste? According to doctors, it could cause, at best, a dodgy tum, and, at worst, breathing difficulties.

"Swallowing even a small amount of the highly-concentrated detergent found in pods can cause diarrhea and vomiting," Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr., managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, said to Maxim.

"In some cases, some of the detergent could even find its way into the lungs and cause breathing difficulties."

PA

And apparently you don't even need to swallow the pods for them to become a very serious health risk.

"You'll get burns to the skin, burns to the eyes, and a lot of problems that are more severe. Burns to the respiratory tract, burns to the esophagus," Dr. Joe Krug told WXIN.

The challenge is thought to have grown out of a popular strand of memes, which centre on the idea of someone wanting to eat the Tide laundry pods because they look like sweet, fruity snacks.

Responding to the viral challenge, Procter & Gamble - Tide's parent company - issued a statement, which read: "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."

Topics: Viral, World News, News, Health

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman