Tide Pod challenge: Get rid of them

 In Opinion

In the latest internet fad, teens are biting into Tide pods and posting the videos online. If any young people were to read this, they would think this old news. Their parents however may be just catching on. For a generation only once removed from the wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap school of parenting, this is horrifying. Why on earth would someone do that of their own volition?

The so-called Tide Pod Challenge is a variation on something all young people have engaged in – the irresistible dare. These kids are biting down on gel packs of laundry detergent. We used to attempt to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon (pretty much impossible to do) or down hot sauce. The main and obvious difference is that those are food products. It’s still stupid and could cause injury, but it’s food.

The internet is abuzz with people warning teens not to eat detergent (honestly never thought those words would be in print in The Creemore Echo).

“It’s highly toxic,” they cry, rhyming off a list of chemicals: monoethanolamine citrate polyethyleneimine ethoxylate, monoethanolamine citrate…

Hold the phone, people are doing everything they can to get kids to stop putting these detergent pods in their mouths but we have absolutely no qualms about tossing them in with our laundry and watching the water drain away.

Detergent is not good for us, whether we are wearing it, flushing it into the water or putting it in our mouths.

The ingredients in these high-powered detergents can end up in waterways allover the world, altering the water quality and affecting wildlife.

As far as we know, no one has died from participating in the Tide Pod Challenge but their candy-like appearance is a threat to children and seniors with dementia and has claimed lives.

We need to take a good look at what we use to clean our households and ask ourselves if we really need all the chemical industrial strength detergents?

In a lot of instances more natural and less toxic cleaners like vinegar and baking soda would do the trick. Better yet, get those teens to look up a recipe for good old fashioned laundry soap and then put it to the test when they do the family’s laundry themselves.

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For those interested, we found a label decoder provided by the Environmental Working Group that identifies substances found in products and associated health risks. www.ewg.org.

 

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