Alcohol expert warns against dangerous TikTok 'Blackout Rage Gallons' trend
If you are a regular user of TikTok, you'll have likely come across the trend known as BORG or 'Blackout Rage Gallons' - a trend that has garnered over 72 million views so far.
For those unaware of the challenge that is taking over university campuses, it involves students filling up one-gallon plastic containers with water, a hard alcohol like Vodka, and a flavored drink enhancer.
As you'd probably expect, students get blackout drunk from the drink, hence the name, but the danger of the viral trend is hard to ignore.
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced that a staggering 28 ambulances were dispatched in response to a 'significant number of alcohol intoxication cases' linked to BORGs.
However, people have been taking part in the challenge because they claim that they end up hangover-free the next day due to the high-water content.
Following the popularity surrounding BORGs, sober coach Christy Osborne has warned against the dangers of this challenge and to think about what you are putting in your BORG.
Christy said the videos that have been floating around on TikTok involve a dangerous amount of alcohol, one that is certainly not going to prevent a hangover.
She said: "While it may seem that mixing alcohol with water or electrolytes will reduce hangovers, most of the recipes for BORGs floating around on TikTok call for 1/5th of the gallon to be alcohol, which is about 16 drinks.
"Some of the recipes call for the container to be filled with half alcohol, normally vodka, which would be 43 drinks! Drinking that much in one sitting can be deadly."
The NHS recommends that you should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread across three days or more.
For comparison, that's around six medium glasses of wine, or six pints of beer.
But the sober coach did not stop there with the warnings, as she suggested that swapping BORGs with your pals could also be a recipe for disaster.
"Any student wishing to try this new trend should always mix their own BORG. Keep your name on it so it doesn’t get swapped with someone else’s," she said.
"Never accept one from a friend when you don’t know how much actual alcohol is in it."
The sober coach advised students that if they are to make a BORG, then to make it last over the course of a weekend rather than drinking it all in one night.
She concluded: "I would advise students to do research on all of the new health risks that have been linked to alcohol in the last few years, including, for women, the increased risk of breast cancer."
Callum Jones