Don’t Cook Chicken In NyQuil: FDA Warns Against Social Media Challenge

WASHINGTON, DC — Nope. Don’t cook chicken in NyQuil or any other over-the-counter cough syrup or medication, the Food and Drug Administration said last week, warning Americans against doing something many would never have thought to do if not for social media.

“Social media trends and peer pressure can be a dangerous combination to your children and their friends, especially when involving misusing medicines,” according to the FDA, which said the video challenges that often target youths “can harm people — and even cause death.”

NyQuil and other cough and cold medications contain acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine, properties that become more concentrated and are changed in other ways when boiled, the agency said.

“Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs,” the FDA said. “Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.”

Past social media challenges have encouraged teens to eat Tide Pods, avoid pooping and take part in other challenges that are harmful to their health.

The warning comes on the heels of a new research report that shows TikTok’s search engine targets youths with misinformation about 20 percent of the time.

NewsGuard, which tracks online misinformation, said in its report that the “toxicity of TikTok has become a significant threat because new research from Google suggests that TikTok is increasingly being used by young people as a search engine, as they turn to the video-sharing platform, instead of Google, to find information.”

The researchers also said TikTok’s search engine “is consistently feeding millions of young users health misinformation, including some claims that could be dangerous to users’ health.” For example, 13 of the first 20 results for the query, “does mugwort induce abortion?” advocated for unproven herbal abortion methods, such as drinking mugwort tea or eating papaya seeds or pennyroyal, according to the report.

Parents should talk to their kids about developing a healthy skepticism about social media challenges that can cause irreversible damage, but also lock up both over-the-counter and prescription drugs, the FDA said.

Parents should also be aware of signs that a child has taken too much medication, including that they’re hallucinating, can’t be awakened, is having seizures, has trouble breathing, has collapsed, or is showing other signs of drug misuse.

In emergency cases, call 911. Also, call the Poison Control hotline at (800) 222-1222 or get help online.