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.
Humans: let’s eat the substance that these plants make to keep the wrong animals from eating its fruit. Let’s eat it for fun!
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
