Smoking smarties, the latest fad among school kids

London, March 21: If you thought that smoking tobacco cigarettes was causing a health uproar, here is some food for thought. The latest craze among kids is the pretense to "smoke", by crushing up the candies and inhaling/exhaling the dust. It seems like a harmless enough practice, except that doctors are cautioning about the hazards of kids inhaling the sugary dust.

Parents and school officials are perplexed over the new fad which is catching on. Children crush the sugary discs into a powder in their wrapper, pour the powder into their mouths, and, in a move suggestive of cigarette smokers, exhale a cloud of dust.

"It was freaky," says Corinne McGrew, a nurse for Summit School District. "My biggest concern was that they would aspirate the wrapper or a whole Smarties and it would be a choking hazard.”

Like the numerous fads before it, this one is becoming a trend which is fast catching on. There were earlier the cases of kids mixing Mentos with Diet Coke to cause a frothy eruption. But smoking Smarties is gaining some adverse publicity.

In an effort to imitate the real tobacco products some children have even taken to snorting it, much to the rising concern of parents, teachers and also the manufactures of the candy.

It has become a “cultural phenomenon” with numerous adolescents posting videos on YouTube, of themselves engaging in this behavior. There are also incidents of kids attempting the act captured on camera.

Titus Williams, a 14-year-old, has demonstrated smacking a roll of candy in explicit detail on YouTube. He disclosed "You can take 'em and you can bang 'em on something hard, like real hard."

Many have become proficient in blowing Smarties smoke rings, while some can even exhale through their nose. Kids pour the sweet powder into their mouths and exhale quickly, causing a cloud of fine dust to emerge without actually inhaling the powder in their lungs.

The habit is spreading all over the country. Eric Ostrow, vice president of sales and marketing at Ce De Candy Inc., manufactures of Smarties in Union, N.J. stated “It can be done with anything made with sugar and compressed — Necco Wafers, Conversation Hearts, SweeTarts, Lik-M-Aid is already pulverized and so is Pixy Styx. I don’t want to be complimented that we’re the number one choice.”

Health experts fear that the habit may lead to severe consequences. Dr. Shikowitz says Smarties can lead to sinusdefine infections, but admitted that the candy was not fatal because of its ability to dissolve. "I still don't think it's a great idea," he says.

In an effort to curb the growing menace, some schools have made the possession of Smarties or any other candy a punishable Class II offence amounting to detention.

Jody Puryear, a concerned parent, fears that smoking Smarties could be the first step "to smoking cigarettes or pot or anything else like that."