8 German Teenagers Hospitalized After Drinking Chile Sauce More Than 200 Times Hotter Than Normal

BERLIN — Officials in Germany say eight teenagers were hospitalized after a test of courage in which they drank chili sauce more than 200 times hotter than normal. The Red Cross in the southern city of Augsburg says that 10 boys, aged 13 and 14, year drank the sauce Wednesday morning, apparently in school.

The German news agency DAPD quoted the Red Cross as saying the boys complained of feeling sick, and eight were taken to a hospital. They were to be kept in overnight for observation.

The Red Cross said that on the Scoville scale, which measures the hotness of sauce, the sauce measured 535,000 – compared to 2,500 for normal Tabasco sauce.

Comments

[mngeorge]

01:48 PM on 02/18/2010

kinda lousy story, so incomplete­..what are the symptoms, the effects, short and long term prognosis.­.come on German reportersl­, what's the total story?

I'll tell you mine. I am of Celtic heritage. I have acquired an allergy to Mexican mole sauce and when caffeine is added to mole' it can send my pulse rate to 186..time to head for the emergency room for a Benadryl shot...or maybe die.

[TheOceanWalker]

08:14 AM on 01/21/2010

On a side note, "hospitali­zation caused by drinking hot sauce 200 times hotter than normal" is one word in German.

;)

[netzwerg]

06:24 AM on 01/23/2010

No...
"hospitali­zation caused by drinking hot sauce 200 times hotter than normal" in german would be "Krankenha­usaufentha­lt nach dem Trinken von scharfer Sauce die 200 mal schärfer als normal ist", not one word...

[Brautigan]

04:50 AM on 01/21/2010

Can anyone tell me how something can be that spicy? It's gotta be some kind of man-made chemical, right?

Seriously, I want to know.

[QUO-VADIS]

05:09 AM on 01/21/2010

http://ush­otstuff.co­m/Heat.Sca­le.htm

[lisalovesamelie]

11:22 AM on 01/21/2010

Holy Hot! But cool link. ;)

[aspiecelia]

03:42 AM on 01/21/2010

So, in other words teenagers are the same everywhere­.

[Intell007]

02:59 AM on 01/21/2010

Tables turned! Usually the Germans are burning others, not themselves­.

[cjohnathan]

01:51 AM on 01/21/2010

we used have contests to see who could do the biggest bong- hit....a much more wholesome teen activity.

[CubfanBudman]

03:35 AM on 01/21/2010

cleared a 4 footer, before we realized there wasn't water in it. lol

[mathme]

01:30 AM on 01/21/2010

Big babies. That's about as hot as a really hot habanero. Stuff gets a lot hotter than that. I'm not saying that it would be fun to eat, but it's not like they were nomming ghost peppers or anything. \
Ghost peppers are around 850,000 - 1million scoville units, pepper spray is around 5 - 6 million.

Yeah, 535,000 is damned hot... but come on.... hospitaliz­ation? :)

[chrispychilla28]

01:42 AM on 01/21/2010

I wasn't thinking "Big Babies", BUT 535,000 scoville units isn't anywhere near the hottest stuff sold for human consumptio­n. Of course we don't know quantity they took AND the scoville rating system is not a perfect rating system. Plus, they could have gotten a hotter than normal batch of whatever it was they consumed.

Here is a good site that gives examples.

http://www­.scottrobe­rtsweb.com­/scoville-­scale.php

[mathme]

12:04 PM on 01/21/2010

I was being facetious with the "big babies" comment-- but you do realize that this is technicall­y internatio­nal news.

I've started doing a fun mental exercise when I read stories like this-- I try to imagine them in a newspaper 50 - 100 years ago.... heck, even 20 - 25 years ago. This story, the "reporter falls in snow and laughs" story-- wouldn't they have confused people that long ago? Why is this in the news paper? Why is my local paper running a story about some adolescent­s in Germany who drank hot sauce and freaked out?

I don't know what to do with the thought, but it does make me feel like we're living in some futurist's dystopic vision of a vacuous future where silly tidbits that would have been told to classmates and maybe drinking buddies at some point down the road ("Oh man, one time, Fritz and me drank this hot sauce that he got from a specialty store... I thought we were gonna die!") are treated with the same level of importance as political news and elections.

I don't think it's a bad thing that the informatio­n is here... it's just weird that I know about a stupid thing that some kids in europe did...

[sleek]

04:43 AM on 01/21/2010

They didn't just put a couple of drops on their bratwurst, they drank it straight! That's like drinking poison.

[mathme]

12:05 PM on 01/21/2010

Nah, it's more like culinary equivalent of a really, really scary movie or prank.

[Garspies]

12:49 AM on 01/21/2010

Acid a$$h0le for a month.

[PDXTransplant]

12:31 AM on 01/21/2010

The second burn will be even worse.

[Gucci Mane]

12:18 AM on 01/21/2010

what happened to the days when teenagers were just promiscuou­s, partying, drug users?

it was a simpler time, it was a better time

[KIVPossum]

12:31 AM on 01/21/2010

Ah, the good old days.

[Garspies]

12:57 AM on 01/21/2010

One never gets used to fire bombing.

[birchtree3]

12:10 AM on 01/21/2010

Next complaint.­..megasore­ass

[henrypapillon]

12:08 AM on 01/21/2010

Hey kids,wanna be mentioned in the next Darwin Awards? Here' s how:

[darthmaul]

12:00 AM on 01/21/2010

These kids will learn. An appreciati­on of Hot Peppers has to be learned. It takes training to work yourself up to the hot stuff. We used to have a place around here call the "Prince of Whales." It was a small dive, known for it's Habanero Burgers. Part of the shtick was that you had to sign a release that absolved the management of any damage that you may do to yourself. The place is gone now, but you can still find YouTube clips. The great thing about eating them is that you get to enjoy the heat rush, twice, if you know what I mean. Those kids are still in for a real treat!

[PaceSetter]

11:55 PM on 01/20/2010

AIn't just in Germany.

My wife works in the ER she sees so many kids whose moms bring 'em in complainin­g of stomach aches and freaked out 'cause they have "blood" in their stool. She always looks for the tell-tale orange stains on the kids' fingertips and mouth before ordering any scans - Diagnosis? OD on Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

A gastroente­rology fellow once told me she saw a kid who ate so much of the stuff that it eventually eroded through the lining of his stomach. You would think they would stop after it starts hurting so much, but it happens so often I'm beginning to think they need warning labels.

[MXMRJ]

12:18 AM on 01/21/2010

Are you seriously postulatin­g that Flamin' Hot Cheetos will erode your stomach lining? Seriously?

[TheOceanWalker]

08:05 AM on 01/21/2010

Only Chester Cheetah's vet knows for sure.

[mathme]

01:34 AM on 01/21/2010

The stuff that makes food hot, capsaicin, doesn't do damage to tissue. It's not an acid, it just causes a sensation of burning in nerves.

[darter22]

11:54 PM on 01/20/2010

Wouldn't want to spill that stuff on your BMW.