Gasoline, Moth Balls, And 12 Other "Poisons" People Accidentally Ingested... But Survived To Tell The Tale
by Alana Valko · BuzzFeedNote: Discussions of suicide and subtance abuse.
A few years ago, a slew of Internet memes labeling Tide Pods a "forbidden food" for their Gusher-like look led to the unfortunate and concerning "Tide Pod Challenge," where people (mostly teens) dared each other to eat Tide Pods.
tide pods
-satisfying gush
-amazing mouth feel
-pretty colors
-delicious smell pic.twitter.com/EFlFSnScSq
— morg 🐸 (@fevervinyI) December 28, 2017
It got so bad the US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued this "HUMAN PEOPLE UNITED AGAINST EATING LAUNDRY PODS" warning, reminding people that Tide Pods are, indeed, poisonous if ingested.
Please don't eat laundry pods. Learn more ways to #preventpoison https://t.co/jjJGA8N1H4 pic.twitter.com/WxJFmeO3Y7
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) January 13, 2018
Twitter: @USCPSC
Apparently, non-human people were still safe to ingest Tide Pods.
Anyways, Tide Pods weren't the first time ill-informed, not-understanding-consequences kids (or even adults) put something questionable in their mouths.
After my worrying mind convinced me that I accidentally inhaled poison while cleaning my bathroom recently (lol), I fell down a rabbit hole in this old thread that asked people to share the times they ingested something poisonous, and why they aren't dead. From moth balls to breast implants (yes) to bleach, here's everything they shared:
1. "My twin brother and I broke open a lava lamp that we found in the basement when we were 16 and decided that we would do something cool with it. So we drained the fluid into a Smirnoff bottle, put the cap back on, and set it on the table. Our stepdad walked by and, not knowing what it really was, started drinking it, thinking it was a Smirnoff wine cooler. He had to get his stomach pumped, but lulz were had by all."
2. "Not me, but a friend of mine. He was drunk at a party and walked into the kitchen to take some shots. He saw a 'boot' glass, like the one from Beerfest, on the counter with some clear liquid in it. So he took it like a shot. Turns out it was bleach. I stayed with him for the rest of the night. He vomited uncontrollably for two hours. He was shaking, and his face was bright red. We force-fed him water, and another friend called 911 to ask what to do. We got him through it, but he honestly wanted to die because it burned so badly."
3. "A family friend, when she was little, drank Drano. Thirty-some years later, she needed to have surgery because the scar tissue in her esophagus made it almost impossible for her to eat. She had had so many surgeries before that she has a high tolerance to most painkillers."
4. "I had a bit of a death wish as a very small child. When I was 2 and a half, I drank my mom's hair dye because I wanted red hair (damn you, Little Mermaid!). I sincerely thought that was how you dyed your hair. By drinking it out of the bottle. My mom apparently found me in the bathroom with hair dye all around my mouth and rushed me to the hospital to get my stomach pumped."
"Stomach pump #2 happened when I was 3. I was playing doctor with my cousin, and we got into my grandma's heart medication, which slows your heart rate. The maid found us this time and put us to bed. Apparently, my grandma came home from work shortly after that (very shortly, luckily) and found me vomiting in my room. The maid explained what happened, and I was rushed to the hospital for the second time in one year due to poisoning. Apparently, my cousin did not have to get his stomach pumped because he spat out the pills because they tasted bad. I guess I had no such issues with that as a kid. So, yeah, I definitely would've died twice if it hadn't been for my mom and my grandma, activated charcoal, and stomach pumps. Yay!"
5. "My great-grandma was very poor when she came to America and ended up eating some rancid meat to survive and got worms. They plagued her and she became depressed and malnourished. She felt she was going to die from the worms, so she decided to end her life by drinking rat poison. Lucky for her (and my existence), it was the perfect amount of rat poison because the worms ate it and died, getting rid of the problem and making her suicide attempt unsuccessful."
6. "I've eaten those 'Do Not Eat' packets you get in shoes/bags that absorb moisture when I was about 4. My older brother told me it was sugar and that I should eat it. I ended up in the hospital with a drip in me to rehydrate. I was fine other than that, though."
"I also had a lot of ear infections when I was little, and because of this, pamol and liquid antibiotics could be found around my house. I managed to guzzle down both the pamol and antibiotics on different occasions. Only once did I have to get my stomach pumped, though. I'm pretty much the reason why kiddy locks were created after that..."
7. "When my mom was little, she accidentally drank gasoline. My grandfather was storing some in (glass) Coke bottles. She took a swig and started screaming. My grandmother called the doctor, who instructed her to feed my mother bread soaked in milk. She lived (or else I wouldn't be here)."
8. "When I was a kid some batteries 'exploded' in a toy I hadn't used in ages, so there was this strange liquidy stuff around the batteries and all in the battery compartment. Yup, I licked it all up. Still no idea what the hell it was."
9. "Years ago, when my two sisters and I were but wee lads and lasses, my parents were having a party. My sister was about 3 at the time. My dad had recently switched companies, and the one he left manufactured breast implants. As a joke, his fellow employees gave him a 'corporate pacifier' (breast implant) as a going-away present. My parents throw it in a shoebox, then into a closet, and forget about it."
"Well, the night of the party, my sister decided to wander off and explore the house. She stumbles back into the kitchen with goo all over her face and hands. My mom freaks out and runs around the house, trying to figure out what she had gotten into. She finds a chewed-up breast implant lying on the floor. She freaks out again and calls poison control. The conversation went something like this:
Mom: 'Help my daughter ingested silicone!'
Poison control: 'What was it in, ma'am? Like a toy or a paste or what?'
Mom: 'Well, it was in a breast implant.'
Poison control: pause 'Ma'am, are you okay?'
My dad and all his friends are roaring in laughter in the background. A little Ipecac, and she was fine."
10. "When I was little I walked into our pantry and found this bag of sweets. They were bright and colorful and were in a pretty bag. Naturally, I ripped that shit open and threw a few of them into my mouth without thinking. They turned out to be anti-moth tablets. What the actual fuck? Why would they make them look so much like candy?"
11. "I ate that blue powdered Miracle Grow fertilizer stuff when I was young. I mean, it's bright blue; I thought it was candy!"
12. "When I was younger, my parents used to run a TCBY frozen yogurt place. I used to go to work with my mom sometimes. I was probably about 6, and on this day, I saw this huge vat of what looked like sugar, so I opened the lid, stuck my hand inside, and started eating."
"After about three handfuls, I realized the taste was disgusting. It was a white crystal cleaner for the frozen yogurt machines. I told my mother, who freaked and called poison control. I had to drink a ton of milk, and I honestly can still remember how shitty I felt for the rest of the day."
13. "My dad was working abroad painting a millionaire's house and drank a huge gulp of White Spirit. This stuff strips paint. In the country, it was sold in plastic bottles that looked like water. One night, he wakes up, and the house is flooding. Water is ruining all the paintwork he's done over the week. He needs a drink and picks the wrong thing in the dark. After the first swallow, he knows he's fucked up. He quickly starts firing out of both canisters. Mouth and arse. He had the worst feverish dreams. Everyone else there left him, working on the flood. He stays in his room, basically ruined."
"Later, when he returned home, he experienced hiccups for almost a week. His sleep was destroyed, and he was completely unable to eat or drink. He looked half-dead. Eventually, it just stopped. A few years later, he had to have a major bladder operation. Doctors never could rule out the poison he drank. He's doing well today, maybe 5-6 years since."
And lastly:
14. "While chemicals are marked poison if swallowed, you don't really think about how the fumes are just as poisonous as well. I was brushing some tile remover on an old linoleum floor that I would scrape off once it had somewhat melted the tile. I washed the brushes in a sink with running hot water and accidentally inhaled the steam that had mixed with the chemical. My throat started constricting, and I panicked and ran outside. I had only gotten a few feet when I couldn't breathe and started blacking out. I thought for sure I was going to die as I was alone, and there was no phone nearby."
"I woke up facedown on the ground and was seeing stars. I had only been out for probably less than a minute when I could breathe again. Probably the closest I've ever come to dying."
Do you have your own story of accidentally ingesting something poisonous? Let us know in the comments (it's ok, we won't judge).
Note: Some reponses have been edited for length and/or clarity.