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The hot pepper linked to teen's death can cause arteries in the brain to spasm.

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[-] waz@lemmy.world 159 points 1 year ago

Harris Wolobah's cause of death is not yet determined; it's not certain if the chip is to blame.

Maybe, just maybe we should put our pitchforks away until we know if the chip mentioned is responsible?

[-] LetterboxPancake@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago

But... my pitchfork?

[-] Juvyn00b@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Are you saying we shouldn't put all our chips in one basket?

Or not to count the chips before they hatch?

[-] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

No. On the Internet, all human events occur in the 68% range.

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Headline: a single chip killed someone!

Article: the cause of death has not been determined

🤦‍♂️

[-] wahming@monyet.cc 10 points 1 year ago

Most annoying is how much the damn post has been upvoted

[-] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

Thanks, that was my understanding, was wondering if I missed something

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 65 points 1 year ago

I can almost guarantee it wasn't the chip itself that did anything, but some underlying condition the kid already had that was exasperated by the spice. Perhaps even an allergic reaction. The media is blowing up on this without even knowing the actual cause of death.

[-] sebinspace@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

Pretty fucken disgraceful if you ask me. Take a tragic accident, turn it into clickbait, and use it to drive traffic to your “news” site to get more eyes on your bullshit advertisements.

God I fucking hate this planet.

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[-] red@sopuli.xyz 57 points 1 year ago

Still no proof capsaicin caused the death. I'm eagerly awaiting for what the autopsy unveils

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. It just highlights the stupidity of people following online challenges.

Apart from that, those chips were labeled 18+, IIRC. How the heck did they get into the mouth of a 14 year old?

[-] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago
[-] SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago

Especially in this case, labeling something 18+ is just a marketing gimmick that makes it more likely for it to be eaten by 14 year olds.

There are no legal restrictions on selling it so someone will sell it, and it appearing "forbidden" makes it more attractive.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

I'm fine if an adult wants to take this kind of risk, but this kid died and other kids have been hospitalized. We protect children from all sorts of other risky things that we allow adults to purchase. I don't think we should allow children to purchase this.

No, it won't stop kids from getting ahold of it sometimes. We can't stop kids from getting ahold of alcohol and cigarettes all the time either. We should still make it as hard as possible for them to get it until they're adults- although I think 16 should be the drinking age and 18 the driving age, but that's another story.

[-] SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de 16 points 1 year ago

From my understanding, this is the first case of actually serious consequences, and I'm sure millions of these chips have been eaten by now.

We need more stupid challenges that cause only pain but no serious, long term injury. It's a good way to learn not to do stupid challenges, keeping kids away from the stupider ones that are more likely to do permanent harm.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I mean... the other way to learn to not do stupid challenges is to just not have stupid challenges because they're stupid and we explain that they're stupid.

[-] SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've heard that no matter how often you tell a kid the stove is hot and will burn them, they won't stop trying to touch it until the pain has taught them. Not sure if it's true (or true for all kids), but I would expect the other side of that ("once they've burned themselves, they learn") to be mostly reliable.

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[-] halvo317@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

I'm going to do the laying still in traffic challenge because the Russian Roulette challenge isn't cool anymore

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[-] porkins@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago

I did the challenge two days ago. It was the third spiciest I’ve had. Was definitely something that could do harm to someone who doesn’t know how to handle ultra-spicy. The kid won a Darwin Award. You can’t ban spicy food nor should you. This is a parenting issue. If this kid didn’t die from this skull and crossbones coffin wrapped in warnings, it would have been some other TikTok challenge like drinking bleach.

[-] devious@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Random fact, but children under 16 are not eligible for Darwin Awards.

https://darwinawards.com/rules/rules4.html

Also, I find it interesting that you are basically insulting this kid for doing something stupid while saying you did it in the same paragraph. I guess you are not stupid because it didn't kill you?

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[-] fear@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

The 14 year old ate the chip at school, there's no mention of who gave the chip to him. It's a school administration problem, but hardly a parenting issue unless the mother bought the chip for her son and sent it to school with him. The mother came to pick the boy up right away when he complained of pain, rushed him to the hospital when he lost consciousness, and she is now speaking out to warn others about the dangers of this stupid challenge.

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[-] Swiggles 11 points 1 year ago

The effects on blood pressure are well known, but that it can cause spasm of arteries is interesting.

Many people eat lots of spicy food daily and I never heard of serious health issues. Especially a single chip might contain a concentrated amount of capsaicin, but it is unlikely to contain much more in volume then a hot plate of chili con carne or even just a hand full of raw jalapenos. So I assume it is some underlying condition and a shock reaction and not the capsaicin itself.

I would love to see more research into this.

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[-] PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

'The chip was only intended for adults'. I know there are plenty of adults that adore a challenge of spice foods. My experience in marketing tells me these people knew exactly what demographic they'd be hitting hardest with this type of challenge.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Tragic. This sort of thing should not be sold. Or at least require them to be an adult.

[-] waz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's a gradient, right? And there probably should be a line somewhere. A line where on one side is considered generally safe and the other side should be considered risky. If this needs regulation, how do we define the line, and what sort of limit should be put on it?

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

You're the only person asking my opinion about it - but I would generally be in favor of having a panel of qualified doctors, food scientists with published work in this field, and lawyers with experience in prosecuting food industry malfeasance to undertake a review of the case history and risk factors to propose a generally reasonable legal framework for what is an acceptable health risk for the general public, whom is most vulnerable and how the risk can be mitigated at point of sale, how those metrics can be rigorously upheld by the food industry, and what should be done with companies that fail to comply.

That sounds like what should happen in a world where a corn chip can kill a child.

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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
209 points (100.0% liked)

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