In the grand old tradition of seeing how many marshmallows one may fit in their mouth, or swallowing a tablespoon of cinnamon, viral video risktakers have a new “food” of choice: poisonous Tide pods.

“The Tide pod challenge”

The infamous challenge entails chewing a brightly couloured packet of laundry solution, either spitting or ingesting the dangerous contents, and posting a video online. Genius.

To be clear, detergent pods are toxic. Period. “Sure, that’s obvious,” you say, yet 39 teenage cases were reported in January alone, throughout US poison control centres.

In 2017, centres received 10,570 reports of year-olds and younger ingesting the pods. Within a year of their launch in 2012, federal consumer safety officials insisted warnings be issued on product handling.

The science of why its bad for you

When the transparent membrane ruptures or dissolves, the packet explodes concentrated detergent, burning your mouth, esophagus, sinuses, and respiratory tract. Not a fun day.

YouTube and Facebook have vowed to remove all material pertaining to uploaders who have posted themselves performing the nefarious viral challenge.

Tide has discouraged the challenge and countered the negative publicity with a wildly successful Super Bowl ad campaign starring David Harbour. It seems to have cleansed the palate.

Do you think Tide has sidestepped the negative publicity? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.