This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Gettysburg chapter.

I cannot believe this is even an article that needs to be written but people need to see this. Recently, people have been eating laundry detergent pods, specifically Tide Pods. First of all, the fact that these pods look like bright “fruity candy” makes them okay to eat that is just completely bogus. Not once have I ever looked at a Tide pod and thought “yum!”. It started out as a joke and a meme with an Onion article posted in 2015 So Help Me God, I’m Going To Eat One of Those Multicolored Detergent Pods about a kid named Dylan DelMonico who just really wanted to eat a Tide pod. Then College Humor posted a video in 2017 called “Don’t Eat The Laundry Pods” featuring a college student eating a bunch of laundry pods after being told by his friend not to despite that very same friend joking about eating them. So now the internet has “memed” it to life. People are eating these things. Its real. Also called the “forbidden fruit”, tide pods are not meant to be eaten and often kill small children. BuzzFeed recently shared some facts about what will happen if anyone eats a tide pod that I would also like to share.

I cannot believe I have to even say this, but eating detergent is obviously bad, just go look at the ingredients. Before, no one would ever suggest that someone should eat detergent, but apparently, reality is not real and people are actually doing this and filming it. It is the cinnamon challenge all over again. Remember, people died doing that. First off, you will not die from eating one tide pod or any other laundry pod, but it will really do some damage to your innards: mouth, throat, stomach, and digestive system. There will be a lot of irritation, coughing, and gagging from just eating the pod with the plastic wrapping. If the detergent is swallowed it causes burns in the esophagus and stomach as well as gastrointestinal distress. However, the serious danger is if you swallow or vomit the detergent and it gets in the lungs, that is really bad, be it can cause serious respiratory distress. While you would have to eat or inhale a lot of detergent to die, it is obviously not optimal and you will be in serious pain. Now, none of you get any ideas and start inhaling this stuff. Some of you are probably going “I get it. I don’t need to be reminded of this.” Clearly, however, there are people out there who need this and who are unaware that this is a problem. Even the government, specifically the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, had to issue message telling people not to eat tide pods.

Of course, afterwards there was a select group of people shared on social media “f*** the government, go eat tide pods”. Trust me, there are much better ways to riot than by eating tide pods. Tide even released its own video telling people not to eat their products. I am at a loss. So, if after all of this you still really want to eat a Tide pod, then please have a friend with you and have 911 on speed dial. Just eat one and go directly to a hospital if you really feel the need. You definitely should not eat them, but especially do not eat them if you already have respiratory, stomach, intestinal, throat, or mouth problems. I do not know how to explain this any more clearly, just do not eat Laundry Pods.

Do.

Not.

Eat.

Laundry.

Pods.

I still cannot believe I am writing this article.

Here are a couple of articles to help:

Here’s How Common the Tide Pod Challenge Really Is

There’s A Really Dumb Reason Why Some Teens Are Eating Tide Pods

Health Risks

References:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tide-pods-health-warning_us_5a5f478…