Chip challenge proves too hot for several Edina middle school students

Several students at South View Middle School in Edina became ill Thursday after attempting the "One Chip Challenge," a social media trend that dares participants to eat a single tortilla chip seasoned with extremely hot peppers.

The students complained of difficulty breathing and eye pain after eating the chips, according to a statement from Edina Public Schools officials, and an ambulance was called to the school. But school health staffers and paramedics determined that none of the students needed to be taken to the hospital or a poison control center for treatment.

The "One Chip Challenge" was launched in 2016 by Paqui, a Texas-based tortilla chip maker that along with its regular chips produces "one extremely spicy chip" branded "One Chip Challenge," and it is dusted this year with Carolina reaper pepper and scorpion pepper.

Videos on TikTok and other social media networks feature people eating the chip and then physically struggling with the spice.

Side effects are similar to those that come with other spicy foods, but consuming the chip carries with it some additional reactions — including vomiting, nausea, belly pain, throat pain and mouth pain.

Hennepin Healthcare has seen 39 instances of people coming into the emergency room after attempting the challenge, according to emergency physician Dr. Travis Olives.

"If you breathe in a very irritating powder, essentially, on these chips, then it would likely cause the same thing that you would expect with the inhalation of other noxious substances," Olives said.

Some challenge participants have reported shortness of breath from eating the chip. Olives said the powder on the chip provides a different route of exposure to the spice, which presents its own issues.

"You wouldn't expect to eat a chili pepper in an uncomplicated fashion and then develop symptoms within the lungs," he said.

The eye pain that some students experienced Thursday came from the chip dust, according to the Edina School District statement from spokeswoman Daphne Edwards. The student who brought the chips to South View was disciplined under district policy, Edwards said.

Each year Paqui releases a new chip for the challenge. The unique feature of the 2022 chip is that it leaves a blue stain on the tongue and mouth. The single chip costs $8.99, according to Paqui's website, and includes a warning label that cautions against eating it if sensitive to spicy foods or allergic to peppers, and it warns people not to touch their eyes if they've picked up the chip with their hands.

The label also says the chip should be kept "out of reach of children." Olives said most of Hennepin Healthcare's 39 cases in the past two years involved children between the ages of 10 and 16.

The Edina incident comes at a time when other schools around the country are reporting students becoming ill after trying the chips. The Lafayette Parish School System in Louisiana banned Paqui brand chips earlier this week.

The Edina School District is advising parents to educate their children on the dangers of internet challenges, which it said can be "disruptive to student learning."