The Horrifying Thing That Happens To Your Body When You Eat Tide Pods

In today's episode of "2018 is already insane," there's yet another dangerous social media challenge circulating among the youths. The "Tide Pod Challenge" is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: It sees people (mostly teenagers) taking videos of themselves eating literal Tide laundry detergent pods and posting them to social media. As you can imagine, eating Tide pods — despite multiple warnings from the American Association of Poison Control Centers and the brand itself — poses some major health risks.

According to a report from the European Commission, most detergents contain surfactants or molecules that are meant to remove dirt stains from surfaces. When ingested in small quantities, these surfactants can normally just cause a bit of irritation in the mouth, but consuming them in larger amounts can, in come cases, result in "vomiting, abdominal pain, flatulence, and diarrhoea."

Joe Krug, M.D., of St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, also told WXIN last week that eating detergent can result in "burns to the skin, burns to the eyes," and issues that are even more severe, like "burns to the respiratory tract [and] burns to the esophagus."

The European Commission's report adds that the more severe side effects of eating Tide pods have a larger chance of affecting the elderly and small children, though, in no way, does that make it safe or okay for any healthy adult to consider giving the pods a try.