The infamous ‘Tide Pod challenge’ has made its way to Carleton.

The challenge was first spurred by a 2015 article from The Onion—a satirical news website—which published a story about a child who wanted to eat the colourful detergent pods. Then, in late 2017, memes replacing food with the bright orange-white-and-blue Tide Pods took over social media leading youth to challenge each other to film themselves biting into the toxic detergent pods.

Subsequently, the challenge went viral, causing Tide to tweet a warning from its official Twitter account on Jan. 12.

“What should Tide PODs be used for? DOING LAUNDRY. Nothing else,” the tweet reads.

Niko F., who declined to provide his last name, is a first-year software engineering student who lives in Prescott House. He said he partook in the challenge a few weeks ago with his friends.

“It started as a joke,” he said. “We put [the pod] in our mouths and bit down on it, but we didn’t swallow any of it.”

Niko compared the challenge to previous social media trends such as the ‘cinnamon challenge,’ where people tried to eat a spoonful of cinnamon.

“If it’s a trending topic, people will cling to it just to get their five seconds of fame,” he said, adding that the appeal of the challenge is the attention and shock value people get from doing it.

“I don’t condone it or support it, because a lot of people are getting injured and going to the hospital for doing such things. It is a pretty serious issue,” Niko said.

Brian Billings, director of university safety, and Laura Storey, director of housing and residence life services at Carleton, both said that they are unaware of any incidents of the Tide Pod challenge taking place at Carleton.

“If we’re not seeing it, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” Storey said.

She added that she doesn’t want Carleton students to be putting their lives in danger.

An article published by the CBC in January said that since 2018, 40 teens have already received treatment in the U.S. for ingesting detergent pods.

Milad Qurishi, a first-year political science student who lives off-campus, said he completed the challenge on Jan. 26, and uploaded the video to his YouTube channel.

He said he decided to put a twist on the trend by blending together a handful of pods to make a “Tide Pod smoothie.” However, he said he spat it out when he tasted the chemicals and later felt lightheaded.

“The next day, I woke up with a sore throat, and later that day I got a bad headache and my stomach hurt,” he said, adding that these symptoms persisted for a day and a half.

“If I wasn’t doing YouTube, I wouldn’t even think about eating a Tide Pod,” he said. “Everyone on YouTube wants to do something that is trending.”

Accounts of students doing the Tide Pod challenge in residence and off-campus also surprised and concerned Andrew Chen, the communications executive of Carleton University’s Emergency Response Team.

“If people do end up finding themselves in a situation where they do need medical assistance, they should not be afraid to come for it and ask. It’s not about being embarrassed and it’s not about judgment,” Chen said. “If people need help, they should be willing to come forward.”

Photo by Serena Halani