Utah Student Sent To Hospital After Ingesting Tide Pod: Reports

LOGAN, UT — A university student in Logan had to be sent to the hospital after ingesting a Tide Pod on campus, according to local media outlets. The Utah State University student was taken to a hospital late Saturday afternoon, the university told KSTU-TV.

Campus police initially called the incident a "Tide Pod overdose," said Eric Warren, director of media relations at the university. The student had actually ingested a Tide Pod.

The student's condition remains unknown.

Warren said it’s unclear what led the student to ingest the Tide Pod

The incident follows a slew of internet incidents in what has been dubbed the "Tide Pod Challenge." Teens are popping the Tide Laundry Pods in their mouths on purpose, then video recording themselves as they try to eat it.

The challenge seems to have started from a post on the satirical website The Onion, which pictured a little boy under the headline "So Help Me God, I'm Going To Eat One Of Those Multicolored Detergent Pods."

At least 10 deaths have been attributed to the pods, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. The American Association of Poison Control Centers said that in 2017, there were more than 10,500 reported exposures to the highly concentrated detergent by children age 5 and younger.

“The ‘laundry packet challenge’ is neither funny nor without serious health implications,” Stephen Kaminski, CEO and executive director of the AAPCC, said in a statement. “The intentional misuse of these products poses a real threat to the health of individuals. We have seen a large spike in single-load laundry packet exposures among teenagers since these videos have been uploaded.”

Photo credit: Pat Sullivan/Associated Press