ide Pods are a line of laundry detergent pod from Procter & Gamble’s Tide brand, which can be deadly if ingested, and which have been labeled as a health risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been numerous media reports discussing how children and those with dementia could endanger their health or life by consuming the pods, mistaking them for sweets. Between 2012 and 2013, poison control centers reported over 7,000 cases of young children eating laundry pods, and ingestion of Procter & Gamble laundry pods had resulted in six deaths by 2017.[1] In response to the dangers, Procter & Gamble changed Tide Pod containers to an opaque design, introduced warning labels and added a bitter tasting chemical to the pod contents.

The pods have been sold since 2012. In late December 2017, Tide Pods became the center of an Internet meme popularized on Twitter, which involves a dare to intentionally consume the pods. The meme became especially popular with teenagers, and since then, there has been a sharp increase in poisoning incidents.[2] Responding to the growing number of incidents, Google and Facebook started removing videos that featured the challenge, and Procter & Gamble aired numerous advertisements urging people to avoid eating the pods.