As part of a dangerous new online challenge, teens are putting laundry pods in their mouth and biting into them.
As part of a dangerous new online challenge, teens are putting laundry pods in their mouth and biting into them.
It first started as a joke with The Onion publishing a column from the perspective of a child who wanted to eat detergent pods because they look like candy. Unfortunately, this has turned into to a serious problem and has many parents worried.
According to USA Today in 2017 alone,
“poison control centers received reports of more than 10,500 exposures to highly concentrated packed of laundry detergent by children 5 and younger, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.”
Now teens are posting videos of themselves biting into these pods and causing many of them to end up in the emergency room. They are calling it the “Tide Pod Challenge” and Tide is warning parents about the real dangers of eating the detergent.
What should Tide PODs be used for? DOING LAUNDRY. Nothing else.
Eating a Tide POD is a BAD IDEA, and we asked our friend @robgronkowski to help explain. pic.twitter.com/0JnFdhnsWZ
— Tide (@tide) January 12, 2018
Watch the videos below of teens taking the ‘Tide Pod Challenge’