People Are Going Crazy Over The Newest Trend – ‘Hot Coil Challenge’

Lately, it seems as if people are just daring other people to do questionable things on the internet for no real reason.

Not too long ago, the so-called “Tide Pod Challenge” was all the rage. Recently, a new challenge—first posted on Reddit—has been created. It is certainly controversial, and it is controversial for legitimate reasons.

The test is to see how long one can hold his or her arm against a hot coil; in doing so, the person is likely giving himself or herself third-degree burns.

Basically, people are being dared to hold their bare arms against hot stoves. One “volunteer” for the stunt, likely attempting to get famous on the internet, looks at the camera while his arm is above metal—the metal being so hot that it is red. He then uses profanity to describe just how hot the coil is. The person filming told the “volunteer” that the video needs to capture his face, as the reaction will be “priceless”. That’s when the “volunteer” presses his arm against the stove, from which steam was emanating.

You can see the man screaming as he willingly inflicts third-degree burns upon his arm.

You can also see the result of the aforementioned act—it is not pretty.

The man had only placed his arm on the stove for a few seconds, the heat definitely seemed to sear his skin.

When the man raised his arm from the stove, he can be heard shouting about how “pretty cool” that experience was.

Obviously, we’re worried that the video will inspire other people to burn themselves in pretty severe ways. Daring others to do stupid things via the internet isn’t a new phenomenon. We’ve reported a lot on the “Tide Pod Challenge”; for those unfamiliar, it involves sticking laundry detergent in one’s mouth and (maybe) swallowing it.

To be clear: eating laundry detergent is a bad idea. The Tide pods sort of resemble something that might be snacked upon, and prior to the challenge they had been accidentally consumed by young children and elderly people suffering from dementia. In regard to the “challenge”, however, young adults were consuming them in an attempt to achieve internet stardom—or simply because they felt they had been dared to do so.

The “Tide Pod Challenge” is really a pretty serious problem. According to experts, including the CEO of an organization that deals with poisonings in the United States, ingesting the Tide pods can lead to things like pulmonary edema, comas, and even death.

Tide, which makes the pods, actually had to come out with an official statement; in that statement, Tide told people not to eat the pods. Tide pods, it states, are “highly concentrated”, and they “should not be played with”.

The CEO of Tide has publically stated that the challenge is not a “laughing matter”.
Eating laundry detergent is certainly not a laughing matter, and third degree burns are not either. In 2015, burns in general caused roughly 175,000 deaths. Over 60 million people were injured that year by burns.

Third-degree burns are amongst the most serious burns (there are fourth-degree burns), as they can definitely cause scarring, and amputation may be need to treat them. Healing from the burns takes a long time, and the healing isn’t always complete.

When one is burned, the prognosis happens to be worse if the burn is large or the victim is older and/or female. In the United States, roughly four percent of those admitted to burn centers die.
One of the most common complications of burns include infection; other complications include pneumonia and respiratory failure. Children often experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of being burned.

We mention the above facts to make it very clear that there is absolutely no reason why anyone should intentionally burn himself or herself. At best, burns are just painful for a while, but they can literally kill you—especially if you are inflicting third-degree burns upon yourself. Just as you should avoid the “Tide Pod challenge,” you should most definitely avoid the “hot coil challenge”. It really is just as dangerous as it sounds, and it could cost you your life. There are better ways to spend an afternoon than pressing your arm against a stove for as long as possible.

You can watch the video HERE!