Snorting Smarties candies can cause dangerous infestations of nasal maggots worming in your noses, internal bleeding and lung infections. Parents in Rhode Island are especially being warned about this in concern with their children, UK MailOnline reported.
In an unusual trend which seeks to imitate cocaine users seen on television, nasal myiasis is a condition which occurs when flies lay larvae eggs inside the nose and are then attracted by the rotting candy rammed up inside the lining.
According to officials in Portsmouth Middle School, the trend is a "widespread phenomenon" that has been sweeping YouTube in recent years and has involved over a dozen students in the area, UK MailOnline reported.
If a tickling sensation is developed inside the children's noses and they start to smell a foul stench from inside their nasal passage, then parents need to be concerned.
According to UK MailOnline, "Symptoms of nasal maggots are sneezing and a gooey discharge that can lead to mucus emanating from the patient's eyelids - and in worse cases can lead to septicemia and serious infection."
Hundreds of clips pop up on a YouTube search where kids are seen crushing the beloved round candies into powder before sniffing them.
Dating back to 2007, the Smarties snorting trend in not a new phenomenon on YouTube.
Young boys are seen making lines of Smarties dust similar to cocaine and snorting the sugary powder through a rolled up dollar bill in one video posted in 2010.
As the residue fills their nasal passages and lungs, the clip, which has drawn more than 12,000 views, shows the kids coughing and gasping for air, UK MailOnline reported.
Lung infections, nose-wedged maggots, bleeding and nasal passage scarring, allergic reactions and even smoker's cough were some of the risks that parents at Portsmouth Middle School were warned about in an email from the administration on Thursday.
According to the letter made public by local blogger and parent John McDaid, kids who inhale crushed-up candies could be more susceptible to drug and nicotine addiction later in life compared to their peers.
By pouring the powdered sweets into their mouths and then exhaling through the nose, some kids prefer to "smoke" Smarties, UK MailOnline reported.
Made up of dextrose, citric acid, calcium stearate, flavoring and coloring agents, it is important to note that Smarties does not provide any high.
Rebecca Boss, of the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, told the station ABC6 that parents should always be on the lookout for changes in behavior in their children.
The Sun News reported that Portsmouth Middle School parents were alerted to the trend after 15 students at Frontier Middle School in Hamburg, N.Y., were discovered sniffing Smarties, according to Interim Superintendent of Schools Paul Hashem.
According to UK MailOnline, "The craze is not limited to the Northeast. In Atlanta, Ga., a 9-year-old boy has been suspended for allegedly inhaling Smarties dust through his nose."
