Dangerous practice ‘chroming’ featured in videos kids watch on social media

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Influenced largely by TikTok, young people are embracing recreational drugs by inhaling dangerous chemicals in nail polish remover, permanent markers and other household items. It's called chroming.

Researchers will present an analysis of chroming-related content on TikTok on Friday at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition in Orange County, Calif.

They plan to inform pediatricians about this harmful practice, also called huffing, which commonly induces a brief euphoric state and is potentially highly addictive. It also can cause dizziness, brain damage and death.

Chroming, or huffing, received national attention in the mid-1990s, when the National Institute on Drug Abuse issued a report that cited young people trying to get high from aerosol cans sprayed into a plastic bag or sometimes sniffing a solvent-soaked rag.

"The study highlights how social media platforms like TikTok can amplify risky behaviors such as chroming by normalizing them among adolescents," the study's first author, Keerthi Krishna, a senior at William Fremd High School in Palatine, Ill., told UPI.

"Parents and pediatricians need to be aware of this trend and its dangers, and social media companies should do more to prevent the spread of such harmful content," Krishna said.

She undertook the project as part of the Teen Trends Initiative at Northwell Health, parent company of Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. It's an eight-week summer research program for high school, college and premedical students.

While chroming among teens isn't new, researchers found it has resurged with the presence of social media apps, including TikTok. Those from ages 10 to 19 are the largest user demographic.

"I encountered many news reports of teens who died from attempting the viral TikTok "Chroming Challenge," Krishna said. "However, these news [reports] were mainly anecdotal."

So, Krishna designed a study to measure chroming's popularity and examine common themes in TikTok videos.

Program participants selected issues that ignited their passion, said Dr. Ruth Milanaik, who oversees the program.

"Our research highlights the need for stricter regulations on chroming content by social media platforms," said Milanaik, an associate professor of pediatrics division in the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, N.Y.

"When products are easily obtainable and glorified on popular sites, it is a potential recipe for dangerous and possibly deadly consequences," Milanaik said. "Parents and pediatricians must be aware of the dangers surrounding chroming and be ever vigilant when teens are purchasing or acquiring these items."

The study interpreted 109 chroming videos that had attracted more than 25 million views collectively. Data consisted of the creator's gender and age, meme information, item inhaled and persistent usage.

Creators' self-reports or coders' estimates provided information on age and repeated usage. Any post that emulates a trend in circulating audio or visual format counted as a meme.

The most common chroming items were permanent markers (31%), followed by air dusters (17%), nail polish (12%) and paint thinners (11%). Next in line were gasoline, spray deodorant and hair spray. More than half of the videos cited repeated usage or addiction.

"Social media can promote some of the riskiest health behaviors for teens because extreme content often generates the greatest engagement," said Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics in the adolescent and young adult medicine division at the University of California-San Francisco. He was not involved in the study.

Parents and teens should fact-check health advice, particularly from non-medical sources, Nagata said.

"The resurgence of chroming-huffing is alarming," said Dr. Shawn Sood, a pediatric critical care physician at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kan.

"Many adolescents believe chroming is a safer way to get high than using illicit drugs, but this is not the case," Sood said. "Inhalant abuse is linked to multisystem damage that can affect the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and brain."

Inhaling household chemicals also can lead to sudden death from suffocation and heartbeat irregularities, said Dr. Shan Yin, a toxicologist and medical director of the Drug and Poison Information Center at Cincinnati Children's.

In the long run, it can cause neurological, psychiatric and learning deficits, and it's associated with other substance abuse, said Yin, who is a pediatric emergency medicine physician.

"Inhaling these products is not benign," he said, adding that "it is important for parents to have frank conversations with their children about the dangers of social media and dangers of drug abuse."