Pediatricians Issue Warning over “Cinnamon Challenge”

A recent Pediatrics “Perspectives” article warns physicians and parents about the increasing number of children and adolescents who have attempted the “Cinnamon Challenge,” an impossible prank made popular on the Internet that apparently entails “swallowing a tablespoon of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds without drinking fluids.” Amelia Grant-Alfieri, et al., “Ingesting and Aspirating Dry Cinnamon by Children and Adolescents: The ‘Cinnamon Challenge,’” Pediatrics, April 2013. According to the authors, the challenge has already led “to dozens of calls to poison centers, emergency department visits, and even hospitalizations for adolescents requiring ventilator support for collapsed lungs.”

In particular, the article reports that the American Association of Poison
Control Centers fielded 178 calls related to the “Cinnamon Challenge” during
the first six months of 2012 and that “[a]t least 30 participants nationwide
have required medical attention.” Based on these incidents as well as animal
studies involving pulmonary exposure to cinnamon, the authors caution
that inhalation “can cause pulmonary inflammation, predisposing airways to
epithelial lesions and scarring,” in addition to posing a greater health risk to
“persons allergic to cinnamon or with broncho-pulmonary diseases, including
asthma.”

“The Cinnamon Challenge is a behavioral phenomenon, a popular dare fueled
by peer pressure that along with competition, often instigates risk-taking
behaviors among adolescents,” they conclude, noting that increased Internet
and social media chatter around the prank has been augmented “by celebrities
and even government officials posting their own Cinnamon Challenge
videos… Although we cannot make a strong statement on documented
pulmonary sequelae in humans, it is prudent to warn that the Cinnamon
Challenge has a high likelihood to be damaging to the lungs.”