Social Media Challenges

Experts are warning against a new viral challenge that left a 14-year-old high school student in Massachusetts dead.

The student, Harris Wolobah, died on 1 September after participating in the One Chip Challenge, a social media dare that involves eating a spicy chip and waiting as long as possible before drinking or eating anything else for relief.

The official cause of Harris’s death has not been revealed, as The Independent previously reported, but his family are warning other parents of what could happen if their children try the challenge.

The One Chip Challenge is a product of the brand Paqui, which makes tortilla chips. The challenge chip is only available in the US and Canada and can be ordered at the company’s website. It comes in a small, coffin-shaped package.

Per Paqui, the chip contains Carolina Reaper pepper and Naga Viper pepper. A warning label posted underneath the “Buy Now” and “Find Near You” buttons on the company’s website advises people to avoid the chip if they are “sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, night shades or capsaicin, or are pregnant or have any medical condition”.

It also states that the chip should be left out of reach of children, and advises customers to wash their hands with soap after touching the chip. Paqui suggests that customers seek medical assistance if they experience difficulty breathing, nausea, or fainting after they eat the chip.

Harris’s family was reportedly informed by his school that he began to experience a stomach ache and fainted after eating the chip on 1 September. His mother, Louis Wolobah, went to the school to pick him up. “When I went there, he was lying down, and I said, ‘What was the chip you ate?’” Ms Wolobah said.

Harris reportedly started feeling better at home that afternoon, then passed out just before he was supposed to leave for basketball practice. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.……

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/one-chip-challenge-harris-wolobah-death-b2406693.html
https://paqui.com/onechipchallenge/