Borax is the new Tide Pods and poison control experts are facepalming

Enlarge / A box of borax—not for eating. (credit: Getty | Lauren A. Little)

In the latest health fad to alarm and exasperate medical experts, people on TikTok have cheerily “hopped on the borax train” and are drinking and soaking in the toxic cleaning product based on false claims that it can reduce inflammation, treat arthritis, and “detoxify” the body.

The troubling trend harkens back to both the Tide Pod Challenge trend of 2018, in which teens chomped down on detergent packets on camera, and the infamous “Church of Bleach,” a faux religious organization that sold industrial beach as a “miracle” solution that could cure a variety of serious diseases when ingested. (The family was recently found guilty of fraud and now awaits sentencing.)

Like the bogus trends that came before them, the new borax enthusiasts have drawn on well-worn conspiracy theories and dubious data to support their poisonous practice. In one video, a TikTok user explained that she put borax in her smoothies because “they are spraying us with chemtrails.” Others have suggested borax’s unproven health benefits are being purposefully stifled by Big Pharma in a conspiracy to keep people paying for more expensive (and regulated) pharmaceutical products—a common refrain among people peddling unproven health and wellness products.