We've had the challenge where everybody ate laundry detergent for some reason, we've had the challenge where everybody consumed dry cinnamon powder because they enjoyed coughing(?), and we've even had the "boiling water challenge", which is basically just felony assault with the word "challenge" attached for legal reasons.
In comparison to some of those, this new challenge honestly doesn't seem too bad, but it's still a bit dangerous and quite dumb.
The new "shell on" challenge involves eating things that are food while they're still in their packaging (which isn't food), for... honestly we've got no idea. We'll admit it is kind of funny when it's just food.
However, there have been some reports of people videoing themselves eating plastic packaging and other potentially hazardous materials.
Liam Hamm, a sophomore at McClintock High School in Tempe, was recorded on Snapchat biting through a plastic bag containing carrot sticks, Arizona Central reports.
"It just looks funny, because it's not really a shell but people are calling things shells. I guess that is what's funny about it," he told the publication, and we have to admit he's kind of correct.
The New York Post reports that more kids on Snapchat are daring each other to eat packaging including plastic and cardboard. A doctor warned that though it's not as dangerous as the Tide Pod challenge or other ridiculous online challenges, it could still pose a danger to health.
“Organic material like fruit peels are typically not dangerous. Zest is often used in recipes (lemon zest) which is the shavings of the rind,” physician Max Plitt told The New York Post. “Eating plastic, on the other hand, can be dangerous. BPA has been suggested to influence hormones. Chemicals in PVC like vinyl chloride have been linked to cancers.”
Which, to be honest, doesn't sound that dangerous. It's not like you're going to eat bag after bag after bag just for your Snapchat videos.
However, another doctor was more worried about the pesticides on the skins of fruits (e.g. banana skins, which you are not meant to eat by the way) or the choking hazard involved in swallowing plastic.
"Those are more concerning to me because anything that you eat that is not meant to be digested, you can choke on," Dr Danelle Stabel with the Henry Ford Health System told ABC Action News.
"The risk of breathing that in and choking is the biggest thing to me, and again it's just not meant to be digested depending on how big of a bite they take."
So maybe, as a general rule, only eat things that are food.