There’s a new threat on college campuses: the dangerous “borg” drinking challenge. Forty six students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were hospitalized over the weekend for taking the dare that has been made ultra-popular on TikTok.
Twenty-eight ambulances were used to transport students to the hospital. Because of the high number of students needing medical assistance, Amherst required the help of ambulances from neighboring towns and the regional EMS task force, Amherst town manager Paul Bockelman said.
Borgs, or “blackout rage gallons,” are one-gallon containers of water that are half emptied and then filled with alcohol and some kind of flavoring, such as water-enhancing drops or powdered drink mixes. Since a standard drink contains 1.5 fluid ounces of alcohol, a borg that contains a fifth of alcohol will contain approximately 17 shots of alcohol.
The trend of making and consuming borgs on college campuses became popular on TikTok. The hashtag #borg has garnered over 82.5 million views on the social media platform.
A website that promotes sports and alcohol enthusiastically endorses it, praising its many qualities:
“Here’s the thing, you don’t even taste the alcohol, like at all. It’s literally like drinking straight Gatorade. Before you know it, you’ve downed an entire fifth of vodka, gotten two days worth of hydration & electrolytes in one sitting, all while expending minimal caloric intake. And you are beyond fucked up, like a one way train to blackout city. Plus, all that water you chugged at the beginning keeps your body nice and hydrated, so you feel GREAT!”
“UMass officials said this is the first time the university has observed notable use of borgs,” a joint statement from the university and the town said. “They will assess this weekend’s developments and consider steps to improve alcohol education and intervention, and communicate with students and families.”
While there is some logic behind the idea of adding water and electrolytes to slow down the impact of alcohol or lessen hangovers, experts are concerned that the gallon size encourages binge drinking. “Consuming this much alcohol would be fatal for the vast majority of people, even if spread out over a full day,” Dr. George F. Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, told CBS News.
The school said all incoming students are required to complete an educational program in alcohol consumption. The program includes discussions on “the size of standard drinks, and physiological and medical risks of binge drinking.”
No doubt that’s a good initiative, but we do have to wonder whether it’s enough to prevent such abuse of alcohol when it’s not only cheerfully promoted by purveyors but also made cool by social media—especially TikTok.
The students involved in this past weekend’s borg incident were celebrating the annual “Blarney Blowout,” “an unsanctioned event related to upcoming St. Patrick’s Day,” according to a report by the Associated Press.
They were eventually medically cleared and discharged back to campus or home with injuries deemed not life-threatening. They got lucky this time.
