Deodorant challenge: Institute warns against dangerous tests of courage with deodorant spray

Tests of courage with spray
Heart failure and respiratory paralysis: Institute warns of dangerous “deodorant challenge”

Actually, deodorant spray is only supposed to help against the smell of sweat

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There are currently more and more videos of the so-called “deodorant challenge” circulating on social media. Testing your courage with deodorant spray can have serious consequences for your health – even death.

Spray deodorant spray onto an area of ​​skin up to the absolute pain threshold or even inhale it: To protect yourself from such dangerous, sometimes life-threatening The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) warns of tests of courage. The background: A so-called deodorant challenge is currently circulating on social media, in which young people in particular take photos and videos of themselves, as the institute reports. “Deaths of young people in Germany are now being linked in the media to the “deodorant challenge.” Imitation is not recommended, regardless of age. The actions are extremely dangerous to health and could be life-threatening.

If you spray deodorant onto an area of ​​skin for a long time, in extreme cases the temperature could drop to as low as -30 degrees within a few seconds, it was said. In addition to pain, there is a risk of massive skin damage and the affected skin area could die.

Cold burns from deodorant challenge

“Cold burns are a special case of frostbite and show similar symptoms to “classic” burns. If a very cold substance comes into contact with the skin, the water in the affected skin cells freezes. Ice crystals form, which cause the proteins in it to freeze The experts explain that the area can denature, i.e. change its structure and can no longer carry out its function. “Pain receptors in the skin then no longer function, which means that no pain signal can be transmitted to the brain, so the spraying continues even though there could already be massive skin damage.”

In a second variant of the test of courage, aerosols from deodorant spray are inhaled. According to the BfR, this can “immediately lead to loss of consciousness, heart failure and respiratory paralysis”. Severe cases could be fatal or lead to permanent brain damage.

Additional source:Warning from the BfR

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