If it turns out that this person had a heart defect that was exacerbated by this chip, does that mean they should be pulled from the market? Seems like there’s a spectrum from roller coasters (exciting! The thrill could kill someone with a weak heart), peanuts (which can kill you based on a preexisting condition, but we’re not gonna ban) to something like high caffeine energy drinks (which should maybe be regulated but probably not banned outright due to health risks) to four loko (patently unsafe for most people when consumed as intended). Not exactly sure where super hot chips should fall on that spectrum; there are things that I enjoy that could kill me pretty easily (for instance: cycling) but I don’t think any society should necessarily ban.
Edit: this isn’t to say that I don’t think that pulling it from the market pending more information is in order; that’s definitely the right and moral choice.
I think if eating a single chip could kill you based on a condition you might not know about or know that it could make things worse for you, it shouldn’t be sold. It’s not a slow death by junk food. It’s not an allergy situation, so some random kid might go “doc says I’m not allergic to chips, I’ll try it”.
Everyone implicitly understands that there’s a risk to riding a rollercoaster. I’d wager that the vast majority wouldn’t ever think you could die from eating something too spicy. I’d imagine the worst consequence in almost everyone’s minds would be feeling miserable for the next hour or so. Even if you know you have a condition you probably would not know that spice could kill you over it.
Your average person isn’t aware of the risk whether or not they have a preexisting condition and therefore cannot make an informed choice.
Plus the marketing on the packaging is designed to sell itself. It’s just a cool challenge to most people, nothing on the product itself would make you think it could kill you. The packaging needs to at least be similar to the diseased lungs they put on cigarettes these days.
also it’s a chip that induces great physical pain that people buy because of social media challengeswhich has killed kids I am more than fine banning that
I think in general I agree with you - but given that people have been eating very spicy things for a long time, even if there is some underlying condition triggered by eating spicy food, it must be vanishingly rare, and for some value of “extremely rare condition” we don’t (and arguably shouldn’t) restrict sales of products that might be detrimental for that condition.
My money is on the kid dying of some heart condition that would be triggered by any particularly big adrenaline spike, and that’s something that an effective medical system would test for early in life. A useful analogy here might be phenylketonuria and aspartame.
The chip is more than just “very spicy” though, and there is not a single legitimate dish in the world that would even approach the level of spicy found here. You don’t eat it to savor the flavor, you eat it to show off to your friends.
It’s quite possible that a condition that wouldn’t affect eating what most people consider to be “very spicy” could be deadly if you try the SpiceMaxx 3000 Hot Chip.
It should be very clear the level of risk you could be taking on by torturing yourself for TikTok fame.
You should never count on a teenager knowing better.
It’s a tenth grader who died, but I haven’t seen anything about adults dying or going to the hospital. I think the solution here is the same as we do for alcohol and cigarettes - it’s weird to think of something really spicy as being in that category, but here we are.
If it turns out that this person had a heart defect that was exacerbated by this chip, does that mean they should be pulled from the market? Seems like there’s a spectrum from roller coasters (exciting! The thrill could kill someone with a weak heart), peanuts (which can kill you based on a preexisting condition, but we’re not gonna ban) to something like high caffeine energy drinks (which should maybe be regulated but probably not banned outright due to health risks) to four loko (patently unsafe for most people when consumed as intended). Not exactly sure where super hot chips should fall on that spectrum; there are things that I enjoy that could kill me pretty easily (for instance: cycling) but I don’t think any society should necessarily ban.
Edit: this isn’t to say that I don’t think that pulling it from the market pending more information is in order; that’s definitely the right and moral choice.
I think if eating a single chip could kill you based on a condition you might not know about or know that it could make things worse for you, it shouldn’t be sold. It’s not a slow death by junk food. It’s not an allergy situation, so some random kid might go “doc says I’m not allergic to chips, I’ll try it”.
Everyone implicitly understands that there’s a risk to riding a rollercoaster. I’d wager that the vast majority wouldn’t ever think you could die from eating something too spicy. I’d imagine the worst consequence in almost everyone’s minds would be feeling miserable for the next hour or so. Even if you know you have a condition you probably would not know that spice could kill you over it.
Your average person isn’t aware of the risk whether or not they have a preexisting condition and therefore cannot make an informed choice.
Plus the marketing on the packaging is designed to sell itself. It’s just a cool challenge to most people, nothing on the product itself would make you think it could kill you. The packaging needs to at least be similar to the diseased lungs they put on cigarettes these days.
also it’s a chip that induces great physical pain that people buy because of social media challengeswhich has killed kids I am more than fine banning that
I think in general I agree with you - but given that people have been eating very spicy things for a long time, even if there is some underlying condition triggered by eating spicy food, it must be vanishingly rare, and for some value of “extremely rare condition” we don’t (and arguably shouldn’t) restrict sales of products that might be detrimental for that condition.
My money is on the kid dying of some heart condition that would be triggered by any particularly big adrenaline spike, and that’s something that an effective medical system would test for early in life. A useful analogy here might be phenylketonuria and aspartame.
The chip is more than just “very spicy” though, and there is not a single legitimate dish in the world that would even approach the level of spicy found here. You don’t eat it to savor the flavor, you eat it to show off to your friends.
It’s quite possible that a condition that wouldn’t affect eating what most people consider to be “very spicy” could be deadly if you try the SpiceMaxx 3000 Hot Chip.
It should be very clear the level of risk you could be taking on by torturing yourself for TikTok fame.
You should never count on a teenager knowing better.
there’s a difference between eating something very spicy and deliberately ingesting pepper spray for a laugh
It’s a tenth grader who died, but I haven’t seen anything about adults dying or going to the hospital. I think the solution here is the same as we do for alcohol and cigarettes - it’s weird to think of something really spicy as being in that category, but here we are.
It already says not for people under 18 on the packaging. Stores just need to have it behind the counter like cigs