September 20, 2022

FDA issues warning over latest social media challenge of cooking chicken with NyQuil

By Shirvan Williams

The US Food and Drug Administration is warning against social media challenges that can harm or potentially kill young people. The latest trend is cooking chicken in NyQuil. Previous trends of this nature include the once popular swallowing of laundry detergent.

According to the FDA warning, “One social media trend relying on peer pressure is online video clips of people misusing nonprescription medications and encouraging viewers to do so too. These video challenges, which often target youths, can harm people — and even cause death.”

One of the more recent challenges, mentioned above, was posted on social media and encouraged people to cook chicken in a mixture of acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine which are the basic ingredients of NyQuil and some similar over-the-counter cough and cold products.

The FDA once again warned that “Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don’t eat the chicken, inhaling the medication’s vapours while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs.”

Another social media challenge that the FDA warned about was one which dares people to hallucinate by taking large doses of the over-the-counter antihistamine diphenhydramine. Called the “Benadryl Challenge.” According to the FDA, teens are ending up in hospital emergency rooms or some even die after participating.

 

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