Over the years, YouTubers have done what some may consider silly “challenges” to remain popular or to increase their videos views and their channel’s subscriber count. Some of these challenges are innocent and harmless, such as the chubby bunny challenge (putting as many marshmallows as you can in your mouth at one time) the whisper challenge (wearing headphones that play music so the person cannot hear anything but the song, and trying to guess what someone is saying by reading their lips) and the bean boozled challenge (eating mysterious jelly beans that are either very gross  or very delicious depending on the one picked) just to name a few.

Recently, a new, very popular challenge has emerged–the Tide Pod challenge. The Tide Pod challenge is when people stick Tide Pods in their mouth and wait for it to dissolve. Many teenagers have fallen victim to the challenge. In the first two weeks of 2018 poison control centers handled 39 cases of teenagers putting the detergent pods in their mouths on purpose.

The question is, why are teenagers doing this after myriad warnings from poison control and doctors? Views. Many teens want to become more popular on YouTube. Even though the challenge is popular, the pods do not taste good. They do not taste like candy even though many say they look like large Gusher fruit snacks. Ingesting these packets of laundry detergent can have major repercussions to one’s health.

“We cannot stress enough how dangerous this is to the health of individuals—it can lead to seizure, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma, and even death,” says Stephen Kaminski, JD, American Association of Poison Control Centers CEO and Executive Director.

Because of these health effects, YouTube is taking extreme actions to take Tide Pod videos down. Tide has even tweeted, “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.”

Despite the constant warnings and the plethora of cases with people getting sent to the hospital, many still take the situation as a joke, such the person who wrote this poem:

“An Ode To The Tide Pod, The Forbidden Fruit

By: Ole Dozo

God said don’t eat the apple

Yet he shouldn’t oblige.

Now it’s time my dear Tide Pod

For a juicy surprise.

So bright, and plump,

Dare I say thick?

Oh Tide Pod, oh Tide Pod

I just don’t believe you’ll get me sick”

The poet later goes on to say not to eat Tide Pods,  but that does not change the fact that this person clearly does not understand the severity of the situation. Officials urge the public not to ingest Tide Pods, because it could be fatal.

To avoid serious injury it is imperative that one does not ingest Tide Pods. Call the Poison Control Hotline at 1-800-222-1222 or text Poison to 797979 to save the number for assistance in a time of crisis or need.