Teen’s death after eating a single chip highlights risks of ultra-spicy foods

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. The teen's mother, Lois Wolobah, reportedly picked up her son from school that day after getting a call from the nurse that he was sick. She arrived to see him clutching his stomach and took him home. About two hours later, he lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital, where he died. The teen had told his mother that he had eaten a Paqui chip—The 2023 Paqui One Chip Challenge chip, to be exact. Each chip is sold individually, wrapped in a foil pouch and packaged in a coffin-shaped box adorned with a skull, snakes, and a Grim Reaper. The box contains the challenge rules, which dare consumers to eat the whole chip and "wait as long as possible before drinking or eating anything"—and, of course, post reactions on social media. Lois Wolobah believes the chip played a role in the death of her son, who had no known underlying medical conditions. "I just want there to be an awareness for parents to know that it’s not safe," Wolobah told The New York Times in an article published Wednesday. "It needs to be out of the market completely." On Thursday, the maker of the Paqui chip—Amplify Snack Brands, a subsidiary of the Hershey Company—announced that it was taking the potentially deadly chip off shelves. The chip was intended only for adults and carried clear warnings, the company said in a statement. It was not intended for "children or anyone sensitive to spicy foods or who has food allergies, is pregnant or has underlying health conditions." "We have seen an increase in teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings," the statement went on. "As a result, while the product continues to adhere to food safety standards, out of an abundance of caution, we are actively working with our retailers to remove the product from shelves." Harris Wolobah's cause of death is not yet determined; it's not certain if the chip is to blame. An autopsy will be conducted, but the results could take up to 12 weeks, according to the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Soaring Scovilles

Some have decried yet another social media challenge endangering youth. But, the teen's death also spotlights a sparse but concerning crop of medical reports that suggest that the pursuit of ever-spicier hot peppers is getting more dangerous, potentially nearing a lethal limit. The Paqui chip was seasoned with the Carolina Reaper pepper, the current hottest pepper in the world, and the Naga Viper pepper, which was the reigning hottest pepper in 2011 but is now merely among the top 10. If you haven't kept track, heat-seeking chili growers have been breeding spicier and spicier hybrids. In 2007, the Ghost Pepper was the hottest, but in 2011, it was overthrown by a succession of new hybrids, including the Infinity Chili, the Naga Viper pepper, and the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper. Then, in 2013, the Carolina Reaper came along and has yet to be unseated—which may be for the best. As a group of doctors from the University of Mississippi wrote in a 2020 medical case report:

The content of capsaicin, the compound that gives peppers their spicy taste, may be measured in Scoville heat units (SHU). The Carolina Reaper pepper boasts up to 2,200,000 SHU. For reference, standard pepper spray contains around 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 SHU, ghost pepper 1,000,000 SHU, and jalapeno pepper 3,500 SHU.

The Naga Viper can carry as much as about 1.4 million SHU. These extreme peppers are linked with serious health concerns. In the 2020 case study, the Mississippi doctors reported that a healthy 15-year-old developed severe headaches for days after eating a Carolina Reaper pepper on a dare. Six days later, when he showed up at an emergency department with worsening headache, nausea, and vomiting, doctors found that his blood pressure was spiking and arteries in his brain had spasmed, limiting blood flow and leading to swelling and an infarct (tissue death due to inadequate blood supply). They diagnosed him with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) secondary to pepper ingestion. After treatment, he made a full recovery. "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."

“A vasoactive substance”

It's not the first time RCVS was linked to the Carolina Reaper. In 2018, doctors in New York reported a case of a 34-year-old man who ate the pepper during a pepper-eating contest. In the days following, he developed severe neck and head pain, and intensely painful thunderclap headaches. Scans showed unexpected narrowing of arteries in his brain. He, too, recovered after treatment. "RCVS should be considered in the differential diagnosis in patients who present with thunderclap headache after ingestion of cayenne [capsaicin-containing] pepper, which is a vasoactive substance," they concluded. But the brain's vasculature may not be the only big concern from extreme capsaicin doses. A 2012 case study from Turkey reported that a healthy 25-year-old man suffered a heart attack after taking cayenne pepper pills marketed for weight loss. Tests indicated that the cause of the heart attack was spasms of the coronary arteries. The researchers noted similar effects had been seen in rat hearts. "We suggest that this product, which may increase the risk of life-threatening cardiovascular events, be closely supervised and controlled by relevant institutions worldwide," the authors wrote of the cayenne pepper pills. It's unclear how the Paqui chip's capsaicin levels compared to those in the weight-loss pills—and if the levels are even standardized in each of the individual chips. Or, as the Mississippi doctors speculated, if the Carolina Reaper contains "a unique vasoactive substance" beyond capsaicin. But, for now, it's not out of the question that capsaicin alone could have led to death. Dr. Peter Chai, an associate professor of emergency medicine and medical toxicology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the Associated Press that the capsaicin could be deadly on its own. "It’s possible eating these chips with high concentration of capsaicin could cause death," Chai said. "It would really depend on the amount of capsaicin that an individual was exposed to. At high doses, it can lead to fatal dysrhythmia or irreversible injury to the heart."