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.