Smoking cotton swabs doesn’t give you high and is harmful to health

Short videos on social media in which young people appear lighting a cotton swab with a lighter and then snorting as if it were a cigarette have scared doctors and health professionals. For the curious, the practice doesn’t give you any high or have any hallucinogenic effects.

“It’s purely for the sense of belonging. It’s not related to pleasure,” says pediatric pulmonologist Talita Maier. However, the act can lead to respiratory problems, such as pneumonia and asthma, which can lead to cardiorespiratory arrest and even death.

Maier explains that the burning of cotton and plastic produces toxic gases that are extremely irritating to the airways — not only to the lungs, but also to the eyes, nose and throat.

“When smoking a cigarette, the person has a feeling of pleasure from the nicotine. Now, smoking the swab will be an extremely unpleasant experience most of the time”, she says that after inhaling the swab, the young person may have coughs and a sensation of chest tightness.

Among those who have respiratory diseases, there is a risk of developing more severe symptoms and attacks.

In addition to the danger in relation to the airways, pediatrician and professor at USP (University of São Paulo) Ana Escobar says that it is necessary to pay attention to burns, since some young people soak the cotton swab with alcohol to light it more easily. “The first danger is burning the lip because the cotton swab and cotton can catch fire.”

There is also the presence of substances that have carcinogenic potential. By inhaling the cotton swab, the person is taking these substances directly to the lungs, since the plastic contains cyanide, aldehyde and hydrocarbons.

“The inhalation of these toxic substances can cause a bronchoconstriction, as if the person has an acute asthma attack, which can be serious”, says the doctor. “It’s dangerous for life.”

The videos go viral, mainly on TikTok, in the challenge format. On the official website, the platform states that it does not allow users to share content that presents, promotes, normalizes or exalts dangerous acts that could “result in serious injury or death”.

The platform defines as a dangerous act activities performed in an unprofessional context or without the necessary skills and safety precautions and that could result in serious injury or death to the user or the public, including amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.

It also states that content that promotes or sanctions collective participation in dangerous or harmful activities is not authorized. However, according to the coordinator of the Working Group on Digital Health at the SBP (Brazilian Society of Pediatrics), Evelyn Eisenstein, the network is not being agile enough to contain this content.

“When we talk about ‘trend’ and ‘go viral’, this type of video is part of what we call dangerous challenges. We need prevention and social protection policies. to be deleted”, he says.

Eisenstein defines that the main characteristics that define adolescents are curiosity, impulsiveness, lack of ability to assess the possibility of risk. In addition, most see themselves as invulnerable. “Social networks extrapolate and disseminate this, but we have to have control.”

She estimates that at least 50 children and adolescents have died in Brazil as a result of these types of dangerous challenges. Therefore, care must be taken at home, in schools and on social media to avoid this type of fatality.

“These are provocative games that appeal to teens, like ‘blue whale’, deodorant challenge, skull breaker game. But that’s not funny, parents need to be aware and teens need to be warned,” she says.