A teen in Worcester, Massachusetts, has died from complications connected to a TikTok taking the one chip challenge. The details of the story are quite shocking and frightening.
A 14-year-old boy from Massachusetts named Harris Wolobah died after eating a very spicy chip due to accepting a social media challenge. He was a student at Doherty Memorial High School.
Paqui chips are made from some of the hottest peppers on the globe, including Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, and Sichuan pepper. The combination of the three sets the chip’s heat at 1.6 to 2.2 million heat readings per the Scoville measure.
The Scoville scale measures the hotness of all peppers, from the no-heat “bell pepper” to the big daddy, which is The Carolina Reaper.
Oddly and frighteningly, Paqui chips are available to anyone purchasing them from Amazon, gas stations, drug stores like Rite Aid, and select grocery stores. Anyone curious to see how hot they are can get their hands on them.
The Paqui company advertises these chips as part of the “one chip challenge.” There is only one chip in the coffin-shaped box.
A Deadly Proposition
The challenge is to see how long you can go after eating the chip without drinking or eating anything. The one-chip challenge has gone viral since it was devised in 2016 as a promotion for the shady chip company. The posts have amassed over 200 billion views.
There are ominous warning labels all over the packaging, instructing people with allergies or sensitivities to hot and spicy foods to avoid eating them. Children should also not eat them; heaven forbid they ever get their hands on them.
The unsuspecting teen died on Friday after participating in the challenge. Those who dare try one of these lethal snacks are encouraged to create a video of themselves eating the chip and post their involvement on social media.
Many school districts across the United States have banned the chips from their campuses because the chips have hospitalized students after they ate them.
What Happened to Harris
On Friday, the Worcester police and the paramedics responded to the emergency. Harris was unresponsive and had stopped breathing. Harris was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His death is under close investigation.
The school contacted Harris’s mother to tell her they had sent her son to the nurse’s office. He complained that he felt sick. He said he felt better once he was picked up from school by his mother. Harris was even planning to play basketball when he suddenly collapsed.
Harris’s mother states, understandably livid that they should have taken her son directly to the hospital instead of just sending him to the nurse’s office.
Has Social Media Gone Too Far?
Social media videos make it seem fun and exciting to participate in dangerous challenges. However, that can lead to nothing but trouble.
Children have died from blackout challenges in 2021. The parents have sued social media platforms, holding them responsible for their children’s deaths.
Social media is responsible, but social media isn’t the first platform to incite potentially deadly challenges.
In January 2007, radio station KDND in Sacramento, California, issued the “Wee for a Wii challenge.” The radio hosts asked contestants to drink as much water as they could without urinating.
One of the contestants, Jennifer Strange, died of water intoxication (hyponatremia) hours after the contest ended. The radio’s jockeys were fired.
As far as the Paqui chip company, they declined to comment on the incident.
