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Teen’s death after eating a single chip highlights risks of ultra-spicy foods

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/09/teens-death-after-eating-a-single-chip-highlights-risks-of-ultra-spicy-foods/

The hot pepper linked to teen's death can cause arteries in the brain to spasm.

Harris Wolobah, a healthy 14-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, tragically died last Friday, hours after eating a single ultra-spicy tortilla chip seasoned with two of the hottest peppers in the world.

30 comments

flicker

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This chip has been on the market for literal years at this point and no one has died until now. I'm open to new information but I think it might be a case where the chip formula has changed, or maybe this was a condition they didn't know the child had, or any number of things.

I like spicy things. Sometimes what I enjoy is dangerous for others. I grieve for the child's parents and friends, but am waiting for more information to confirm that it was entirely the chip to blame.

I also think that we should remember that parents should be supervising these things. If my 11-year-old asked to do the challenge, I would've rightfully tried him first on something spicy that's much less spicy than this. I want to know what all this kid has tried before this challenge. If this was his first exposure to spicy things, then I think it's reasonable to be unsurprised. If that's not the case, I want to know.

JoBo

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You're going to follow him around for the next nine years making sure he doesn't do any daft teenage things?

Good luck with that.

sour

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That's still not the company's fault then. If they cut themselves handling knives, is it the knives manufacturers fault?

ggppjj

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Is the knife marketed by the manufacturer as a challenge knife where the challenge is to do the finger stab trick?

sygnius

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According to the article, the packaging on the chip says that it's for adults only, as well as other warnings like not for anyone with existing conditions, or pregnant. So the kid did take it outside of the warming parameter stated. So it's not really the manufacturers fault.

JelloBrains

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This. If any fault could be given I'd argue it's on the retailers. The point of sale machines should have run an ID check on the chip, anything marked adults only should have the POS ask for an ID like alcohol, cigarettes, and cough syrup.

MightEnlightenYou

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I think you just came up with the next money-maker!

Mojave

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Brotherman he didn't eat the chip at home in front of his parents who could stop him, read the article before being so God damn stupid

geosoco

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I thought this was might just grieving parents blaming something coincidental, until reading this article. I didn't know that there are other cases of the spiciness of these new peppers seem to be causing problems for some people. Still no clear evidence, but it's possible there's something.

"These ultraspicy peppers may either contain a unique vasoactive substance, or there is a dose-related effect of capsaicin concentration that can trigger RCVS," the doctors concluded. "Further research in this area is needed to determine the exact pathophysiology of this phenomenon. This case provides further evidence that ingestion of hot peppers may lead to serious consequences and that further research is needed to assess their safety."

Emphasis mine.

PoliticalAgitator

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I don't think it's really as surprising as people in this thread seem to think.

It's not just "ouch my mouth". Your body has an extreme, undeniable stress reaction to the chip. Its not inconceivable that could push an underlying condition over the edge.

If this was a story about a sedentary 14 year old who died after being challenged to run a marathon with no training, people wouldn't be saying "Oh wow, I didn't think jogging could kill you".

YarrMatey

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I had no idea you could die from jogging a marathon so I think you would be wrong about that. It seems to be very rare but can happen depending on your family history of heart attacks and things like obesity, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels for anyone else wondering about it. When you said sedentary I thought you meant if you don't exercise regularly you will die from doing exercise but it's not like that.

paper_clip

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I had no idea you could die from jogging a marathon so I think you would be wrong about that.

Literally the first person to run a marathon, the Greek runner Pheidippides bringing the news to Athens about the Greek victory over the Persians at Marathon, died from exhaustion, his last words being "Rejoice, we conquer!" as he collapsed.

YarrMatey

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Never heard of the guy but sounds like he had heart problems and no access to modern medicine.

lowdownfool

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He ate better than you and exercised more, guaranteed. Also, what's up with your education? Red state?

YarrMatey

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I'm not sure why you're offended. I read this article that said this isn't a problem unless you have heart problems. You can appear fit and still have a heart problem, "the biggest danger to younger, otherwise healthy runners is undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that enlarges part of your heart muscle." I'm in a blue state lmao but thanks for implying I'm uneducated. America's education has also been shitty, I would be surprised if they cover this at all in other states.

lowdownfool

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I'm not offended. I also wasn't replying to you. Oopsie?

lowdownfool

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Oh, I'm not offended. So you're saying Pheidippides had heart problems? lol

Itty53

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Case provides further evidence. We know peppers can lead to serious consequences. Case in point, these chips have warning labels on them already. Don't eat if pregnant, nursing, heart condition, etc.

That last one is the active player here. The kid had an undiagnosed heart condition. It's not his fault, it's not the fault of the chip maker either. It's just a sad happening. Not every sad happening needs to result in legal actions and regulations or ... anything, really. Guns are still legal after all, I don't want to hear fuck-all about banning fruits and vegetables.

CmdrShepard

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That emphasized line is typical when someone wants to ban something but doesn't have any proof that it's actually dangerous. See the US government and conservative's reasoning for keeping marijuana banned or the federal government banning vaping (while allowing cigarette sales to continue). In both cases the weak justification for the bans are "we don't like this stuff and there's not enough research proving it's safe!" Meanwhile they try to hamstring anyone who wants to conduct a study unless the objective of the study is to bolster the ban.

HeartyBeast

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It’s also typical when researchers notice an interesting phenomenon and decide they need to gather more data.

CmdrShepard

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Doesn't seem like that applies here since the researcher said "we need more data to determine its safety", implying it's unsafe until we can prove it safe even though countless people eat this spicy shit every day without any noteworthy issues. He's acting like this is the first time the human race has discovered spicy food and it's some big mystery.

HeartyBeast

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implying it’s unsafe

Implying it may or not be safe.

Madison_rogue

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"Implying" is a very subjective word. Nowhere in the article did a doctor mention they wanted to ban peppers, just research them more to ensure their safety.

There's no code word phraseology here...just the intent to do more science to learn more.

Itty53

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And guns are still legal after countless school shootings, so don't hold your breath.

lowdownfool

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The right to spice isn't enshrined in the Constitution. It should be, maybe. The Spice Must Flow.

guyrocket

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It surprises me that it is possible for capsaicin to kill someone. Maybe it is something else or a combination of things but I await further evidence.

I do like to eat spicy but I top out somewhere around habaneros. It would be good to know if the peppers might kill me. I already think I'm pretty careful with them, but I'll be more so if there's real danger.

Unfortunate for this kid. Best wishes to his family.

Bodongs

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It didn't, there's obviously something else going on here

Ganondorf

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I haven't dove too deep on the subject but iirc dying from capsaicin is so rare that it's most likely caused by an underlying health problem - which the one chip challenge clearly says "do not eat this if you have health complications". One death out of the millions of eaten chips clearly shows this was an anomaly.