The Food and Drug Administration is warning Americans not to confuse small bottles of energy drinks with “poppers.”

The agency reported it continues to see cases of people dying or being severely hurt after “consuming poppers that resemble, and often mistaken for, popular energy shots,” it shared on social media May 24.

Poppers are products that contain amyl nitrite, a chemical compound that typically is used to treat chest pains. People are inhaling it for recreational use or to enhance sexual experience.

And doctors say individuals who abuse it even in small doses can put themselves at risk for long-term neurological problems.

While these products can be sold in stores and online, they cannot be labeled and sold legally as poppers. Instead, they are marketed online and in adult novelty stores as air fresheners, solvents, cosmetics, deodorizers and liquid incense, according to the FDA.

Some brands — packaged in bottles similar to 5-Hour Energy — include Rush, Super Rush, Jungle Juice and Sub-Zero. 

“I can see based on the way the bottles look, how someone can maybe confuse them. They’re not sold next to each other — they’re not marketed to do the same thing,” Dr. Adam Berman, an emergency room physician at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, told The Post.

Berman said poppers, when inhaled as vapors, can widen blood vessels and increase blood flow while relaxing smooth muscle tissue. 

“Poppers can cause blood vessels to dilate which leads to your blood pressure to go down. The amount that is normally used is very small, but if you consume an entire bottle of it, that can make you completely unable to do any normal activities. It could ultimately lead to cardiovascular collapse which could kill you,” Berman said.

The FDA issued a public health alert in 2021 citing doctors, who were reporting an uptick in deaths related to poppers due to consumer confusion.

“Poppers have not been evaluated by the FDA for safe use. These products are not safe to ingest or inhale,” the agency stated on its website.

“Make no mistake, ingesting or inhaling poppers seriously jeopardizes your health,” said Judy McMeekin, a pharmacist who works for the FDA.

“These chemicals can be caustic and damage the skin or other tissues they come in contact with, cause difficulty breathing, extreme drops in blood pressure, decreases in blood oxygen levels, seizures, heart arrhythmia, coma, and death. Do not ingest or inhale under any circumstances.”

Heavy inhalation of poppers can cause a condition called methemoglobinemia, which can be life-threatening as tissues cannot get enough oxygen.

“People who use poppers recreationally — even in small doses —  put themselves at risk for developing long-term neurological problems that can be very serious. The story isn’t just ‘don’t consume a whole bottle,’ it’s basically ‘don’t use them even recreationally,’ ” Berman said.