One chip challenge: The Paqui one chip challenge consists of eating a 2.2 million Scoville units chip. For some context, a Carolina Reaper, one of the world’s hottest peppers, only has 1.7 million Scoville units. Harris Wolobah, a 15-year-old from the city of Worcester, died in September of 2023, after eating the Paqui chip as part of TikTok’s 1 chip challenge. His autopsy found Wolobah died after eating a large quantity of chile pepper extract and also had a congenital heart defect (npr.org) 

Banana and Sprite: The banana and Sprite challenge- probably the stupidest challenge on this list- consists of eating 2 bananas and then chugging a bottle of Sprite. While you may be thinking, “What’s so bad about that?” One word: puking. The protein in the banana and the carbon dioxide in the Sprite mix with the acids in your stomach reflux. Your stomach cannot handle the two mixing and you excrete it the way you know how: throwing up. (Sportskeeda.com) 

Free oo: A TikTok trend in 2021 where one person would attempt to jump over one or more people. Some people were successful at this challenge and some weren’t, those who weren’t successful got injured in various ways. Injuries included concussions and damage to the wrist and arms. There is not an exact number of injuries from this trend; however, there were some reported.

Tide pod challenge: A dangerous trend in 2018: kids eating tide pods. The trend started on TikTok and according to WVU researchers, 13,176 injuries were caused; 18 resulted in emergency room visits. The most common symptoms were burns to the esophagus, difficulty breathing, and excessive vomiting.

Salt on ice: The salt on ice challenge dates back to as early as 2012 when the first recorded event of this challenge was posted. It consisted of people taking salt and putting it on their skin, then rubbing an ice cube on the spot. This would go on to give the participant second to third-degree burns, which were very similar to the symptoms of frostbite. In most cases, the skin would even bubble and then cause very painful blisters.

Devious licks: A 2021 trend that consisted of stealing items from various places (most commonly schools), and in the student’s case, the bigger the better. In 2021 the most common thing to “lick” from school was soap dispensers because they were the easiest targets. However, students began to start moving on to bigger things, somehow stealing sinks and other things. This led to students being caught and suspended for a long period and even getting slight cuts and injuries during the act of stealing.  

Skull breaker:  The skull breaker trend took over TikTok for a time in 2020, which was one of the most dangerous TikToks that has been on the app. This trend would have three people in each video where they would all line up, and then the two on the outside would jump, convincing the middle to jump as well. As the person in the middle jumped the two on the outside would kick their legs out making them fall. Some were lucky enough to escape from serious injuries, while others broke hands, arms, and even necks or were knocked into a coma. Two people even died from this challenge in Brazil.

The Milk Crate challenge: The 2021 milk crate challenge was where people would stack milk crates to act like stairs, and then try to walk over them. This challenge blew up on TikTok and soon everyone was doing it, but it proved to be very dangerous as no one could complete this challenge. Most of those who failed sustained minor injuries, but some ended up with more serious injuries injuring wrists, hands, and shoulders trying to brace their falls.

Sleepy Chicken: Nyquil chicken also known as “Sleepy Chicken” was a trend where kids would saute raw chicken in a pan with Nyquil or other types of cough syrup. Even if you were to not eat the chicken, breathing in the fumes could give you an unsafe amount of drugs in your body (FDA). The fumes of the cough syrup could seriously damage your lungs, noted the FDA.

Fire challenge: In 2014 a trend arose called the fire challenge. It included pouring flammable substances – often hand sanitizer or alcohol – on one person’s body parts and then lighting it on fire. I mean this really speaks for itself, the injuries from this included burns of all degrees. These would leave wounds on the participant and if not treated properly it could lead to much worse.

Sunburn art: A trend where people would only put sunscreen on certain areas so that part of their body will get burned and the rest will stay protected. The goal was to make cool patterns such as an American flag, stars, etc. It can be very dangerous to do this because without sunscreen you are very susceptible to burns, sun poisoning, and in extreme cases skin cancer. 

Do not try any of these trends at home.