Vigil deliberate for Massachusetts teen who died after collaborating in One Chip Challenge

WORCESTER, Mass. — The household of an adolescent who died after consuming a particularly spicy tortilla chip as a part of a social media problem will collect to recollect the promising basketball participant at a vigil Friday whereas they await phrase from Massachusetts authorities about what brought on his demise.

Harris Wolobah died on Sept. 1 and an post-mortem is pending. But the 14-year-old’s household blamed the One Chip Challenge, which requires members to eat the spicy chip and see how lengthy they will go with out consuming different meals and water.

Since his demise, Texas-based producer Paqui has requested retailers to cease promoting the individually wrapped chips, a step 7-Eleven has already taken. Walgreens mentioned Friday it was eradicating the chip from its shops, and Amazon halted gross sales and was notifying clients who purchased the product not too long ago that Paqui was recalling it.

The One Chip Challenge chip sells for about $10 and comes wrapped in a sealed foil pouch that’s enclosed in a coffin-shaped cardboard field. The package deal warns the chip is made for the “vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain,” is meant for adults and ought to be stored out of attain of kids.

Paqui, a subsidiary of The Hershey Company, mentioned in a press release posted on its web site Thursday that it was “deeply saddened by the death” of Wolobah.

“We have seen an increase in teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings,” the corporate mentioned. “As a result, while the product continues to adhere to food safety standards, out of abundance of caution, we are actively working with retailers to remove the product from shelves.”

Authorities in Massachusetts additionally responded to the teenager’s household’s accusations by warning mother and father concerning the problem, which is fashionable on social media websites corresponding to TikTok.

Scores of individuals, together with youngsters, submit movies of themselves unwrapping the packaging, consuming the spicy chips after which reacting to the warmth. Some movies present individuals gagging, coughing and begging for water.

“We urge parents to discuss this with their children and advise them not to partake in this activity,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early mentioned in a collection of posts concerning the problem on the social community X, previously often called Twitter. “The company warnings state the chips are intended for adult consumption. Other states across the country have seen hospitalizations due to the chip challenge, including teens.”

A ten-year-old Florida lady was suspended this week for bringing the Paqui chip to highschool, her father, D’Anton Patrick, instructed West Palm Beach tv station WPTV. Six youngsters at Forest Park Elementary School wanted medical consideration after coming into contact with the chip Wednesday, in keeping with the suspension letter despatched the lady’s mother and father.

The lady’s 12-year-old brother purchased the chip, however his mom made him throw it out, Patrick mentioned. The lady fished it out of the rubbish and introduced it to highschool.

There have been reviews from across the nation of teenagers getting sick after collaborating within the problem, together with three college students from a California highschool who had been despatched to a hospital. Paramedics had been referred to as to a Minnesota college final yr when seven college students fell in poor health after collaborating within the problem.

“You can have very mild symptoms like burning or tingling of the lips in the mouth, but you can also have more severe symptoms,” mentioned Dr. Lauren Rice, the chief of pediatric emergency drugs at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, noting this is a chance for fogeys, coaches, academics to be taught concerning the numerous social media challenges on the market that might pose risks.

“This goes back to the ingredients that are used with the tortilla chip,” she continued. “There are some spices like capsaicin, which is a chemical ingredient that we use in things like pepper spray and so they are very strong chemicals and they can be very irritating. Some of the more severe symptoms that we see can be things like significant abdominal pain or nausea and vomiting.”

Dr. Peter Chai, an affiliate professor of emergency drugs and medical toxicology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, mentioned the chips could be harmful beneath sure circumstances.

“It’s possible eating these chips with high concentration of capsaicin could cause death,” Chai mentioned. “It would really depend on the amount of capsaicin that an individual was exposed to. At high doses, it can lead to fatal dysrhythmia or irreversible injury to the heart.”

Police in Worcester, the state’s second-largest metropolis, mentioned in a press release that they had been referred to as to Wolobah’s home Friday afternoon and located him “unresponsive and not breathing.” He was transported to a hospital, the place he was pronounced lifeless.

Family and buddies of Wolobah consider the chips brought on his demise and his household referred to as for the chips to be banned from retailer cabinets. A vigil for the teenager is deliberate for Friday night at a park in Worcester in central Massachusetts.

“The chip is responsible in our eyes for whatever took place because he was a healthy kid,” mentioned Douglas Hill, who runs the basketball league Wolobah performed in and described him as a quiet teen whose household got here to the U.S. from Liberia.

“The conversation now is about the chip, but there will be other challenges coming and we want to make sure children know they shouldn’t be participating in anything that could put them in harm’s way,” mentioned Douglas, who organized a basketball occasion Saturday to honor the teenager.

There is little doubt why somebody would eat the chips.

In addition to its identify, One Chip Challenge, the package deal lays out the problem guidelines, which encourage the client to eat the whole chip, “wait as long as possible before drinking or eating anything” and submit their response on social media. The packaging additionally asks how lengthy can the person final on a scale from one minute to 1 hour.

The again of the package deal warns consumers to not eat the chip if they’re “sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, night shades or capsaicin or are pregnant or have any medical conditions.”