“No,” he reportedly replied, “it was the flea.”
That morning, Harris had eaten a Paqui “One Chip Challenge” product, a simple tortilla wrapped in a coffin-shaped box and covered in powder made from the world’s hottest chili peppers, according to the complaint. Hours after his visit to the infirmary, Harris died.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed by her parents accuses Paqui and its parent companies — Amplify Snack Brands and Hershey Co. — of manufacturing a dangerously spicy product and aggressively marketing it to children through a viral social media campaign. In the complaint filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, Lois and Amos Wolobah also accuse Walgreens, the retailer that sold the chips, of making the product easily accessible to children.
Paqui, Amplify and Hershey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Thursday. Walgreens declined to comment on the Wolobahs’ allegations.
Douglas Sheff, the Wolobahs’ attorney, said the chips were so dangerous that no one should have eaten them.
“This product should never have been available to adults, let alone children. It should never have been marketed,” Sheff said Thursday at a news conference. “What do they do? They keep promoting it over and over again, until poor Harris dies.”
In the product’s ad, Paqui boasted that last year’s One Chip Challenge chips were topped with a seasoning made from “two of the hottest peppers available today,” the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper. Each has been ranked at various times as the world’s hottest pepper, according to Guinness World Records, and the Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper can register about 2.2 million and 1.3 million Scoville heat units, respectively, dwarfing the jalapeño’s 2,500 to 8,000 units.
Harris’ friend purchased the One Chip Challenge product on Aug. 31 at a Walgreens in their hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, according to the complaint. The next morning, the friend brought several chips to school, where Harris and several other students allegedly ate varying amounts of chips together and posted videos of themselves doing so on social media.
After Harris became ill, he went to his teacher for help and was taken to the infirmary in a wheelchair, according to the complaint. School officials told his mother he was sick, and his parents picked him up and took him home, according to the complaint.
That afternoon, Harris went to his room after becoming ill again, the complaint says. His mother reportedly noticed he was breathing abnormally soon after and called 911. Harris again collapsed and stopped breathing, the complaint says, and although paramedics took him to the hospital, doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
In an interview with Boston-based television station WBZ in September, the Wolobahs blamed the chip for their son’s death and pushed for its ban. Less than a week after Harris’ death, Paqui pulled One Chip Challenge chips from store shelves.
A medical examiner determined in February that Harris’ death was caused by cardiac arrest “in the context of recent ingestion of a food substance with a high concentration of capsaicin,” Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, said in May, when the findings began to gain national attention.
The autopsy report noted that Harris suffered from “cardiomegaly and left anterior descending coronary artery myocardial bypass grafting” — an enlarged heart and congenital heart disease, Driscoll said. But Sheff said at Thursday’s news conference that Harris would have had “a normal, healthy life with a normal life expectancy” had he not eaten the chip.
In May, a Paqui spokeswoman said the company worked with retailers to remove One Chip Challenge chips from store shelves in September and discontinued the product.
“We were and remain deeply saddened by the passing of Harris Wolobah and extend our condolences to his family and friends,” spokeswoman Kim Metcalfe said at the time, adding that the challenge “was intended for adults only… the product was not intended for children or anyone with a sensitivity to spicy foods or underlying health conditions.”
But Paqui already knew the One Chip Challenge was dangerous, according to the complaint, which cites warning labels on the product, including: “Keep out of reach of children” and “Do not eat if you are sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to chili peppers, nightshades or capsaicin, or if you are pregnant or have a medical condition.”
Before Harris’ death, there had been several incidents in which students ate potato chips and subsequently required medical attention at schools in California, New Mexico and Texas.
Despite these incidents, the children still had easy access to the chips, according to the complaint. Paqui encouraged children to eat them by promoting the One Chip Challenge on TikTok and other social media sites, urging people to eat one chip and wait as long as possible before eating or drinking something to ease the pain, according to the complaint.
The complaint also alleges that the Walgreens store did nothing to restrict children’s access to the product. Employees did not lock the chips away or place them on shelves accessible only to employees, but allowed children to freely pick them off the shelves and purchase them, the complaint states.
Sheff said Harris’ parents are filing the lawsuit to help protect other children.
“The Wolobahs want to send a message, not just to Paqui and Hershey, but to anyone who would put our children in danger,” he said.
Maham Javaid contributed to this report.
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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