Hot Chip Challenge May Have Led to 14-Year-Old Boy’s Death

A scorching chip problem might need change into lethal for 14-year-old Harris Wolobah in Massachusetts this month. In accordance with his household, the boy felt sick and died mere hours after consuming a potato chip made with two of the most well liked peppers on document. A ultimate willpower into his explanation for loss of life has not been launched but, nevertheless.

As first reported by the Boston Globe, Wolobah ate a model of Paqui chip often called the “One Chip Problem”—a chip dusted with the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper peppers—early on September 1. Quickly after, he visited the nurse’s workplace complaining of abdomen ache. He was despatched residence the place his situation quickly worsened. He fell unconscious and stopped respiration. He was then taken to the hospital however to no avail. Wolobah’s household believes that the chip contributed to his loss of life.

Paqui chips are made by Amplify Snack Manufacturers, a subsidiary of the Hershey Firm. The product in query comprises a warning that people who find themselves pregnant, allergic, or delicate to spicy merchandise, or who’ve underlying well being issues ought to keep away from consuming it. The labeling additionally warns that it’s solely meant for adults and ought to be stored out of kids’s attain.

Previous to Wolobah’s loss of life, nevertheless, the product was available on retailer cabinets for 10 {dollars}. And whereas this is likely to be the primary loss of life linked to the One Chip Problem, there have been several reports of kids getting harm after consuming it courting again to final yr. A minimum of one faculty district has also banned Paqui chips from their colleges.

“We’re deeply saddened by the information report and specific our condolences to the household,” a Paqui spokeswoman, Kim Metcalfe, mentioned in a statement within the New York Instances late final week. “It will be inappropriate for us to take a position or remark additional.”

With out admitting fault within the boy’s loss of life, the corporate has pulled the chip from the cabinets in the meanwhile. On its web site for the One Chip Challenge, there may be now a paragraph stating that the corporate has seen a rise in teenagers and different individuals paying no heed to the product’s warnings.

Some research has instructed that the peppers generally present in these chips, together with the Carolina Reaper, may cause severe cardiovascular issues in teenagers. However for now, it’s nonetheless not clear if and the way the chip might need killed Wolobah. An post-mortem of the boy is anticipated to be accomplished inside 12 weeks.