Police are warning parents about a TikTok challenge that reportedly sent several kids to the hospital last week.
At least 10 elementary students at Dexter Park School in the town of Orange, Massachusetts were hospitalized last week after encountering a spicy bubble gum, according to officials.
“It’s something you see out of a horror movie. Honestly, it felt like these kids were under attack,” parent Kathleen Woodard told Western Mass News.
The Massachusetts mother said she was called to the school on Tuesday to pick up her 9-year-old son, Michael, who was vomiting after chewing a piece of CaJohns Trouble Bubble Bubble Gum.
The spicy gum’s online ad challenges consumers to blow a single bubble and sparked a viral challenge.
The TikTok #troublebubble now has 10.9 million views as people watch others struggling to complete the painful dare.
The challenge has been around since 2021 but continues to entice daredevils who can purchase “the hottest bubble gum on the planet” from online retailers, including Amazon where packs of the gum are sold for $15.
“This is not for wimpy people, elderly, children, pets, or people with heart conditions and excessive sweating problems,” the ad warns.
It also reminds buyers that “all pepper extracts should be handled with extreme caution,” which the youngsters at Dexter Park supposedly did not.
“I walked in and kids were crying. They were just lined up down the hall, in the front hall area. Their hands were red, their faces were beat red, and they were crying saying it hurt,” Woodard explained.
“Some of them were like a deep red.”
The Orange Fire Department was dispatched to the school to transport six children to Heywood Hospital by ambulance, WWLP reported. Others were taken to the hospital by parents.
The young students suffered from vomiting, intense pain and burning, stomach aches and skin irritation, according to reports.
Some children reportedly suffered painful symptoms from simply touching or smelling the pepper-infused treat.
“I got a little scared about all of it,” fourth grader Liam Ellis, who watched his classmates try the treat without participating himself, told Western Mass News.
The Southborough Police Department issued an alert about the “TikTok gum challenge” noting that the chewy pieces “contains the same active ingredient as police pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum.”
The warning explained that police level pepper spray is rated at one to two million Scoville heat units while the Trouble Bubble Bubble Gum boasts a shocking 16 million Scoville heat units. The Scoville scale measure the spiciness of chili peppers and products that use them.
The police department advised that anyone who comes into contact with the gum should immediately rinse with water, swish it around and then spit as many times as possible.
“If, by chance, they have actually swallowed the saliva, they may vomit and have difficulty breathing,” the statement said. “These individuals should be evaluated and transported to an emergency room.”
Representatives from Dexter Park School, Soutborough Police Department and United Sauces — an online retailer selling the gum — did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Content creator and spicy food expert Tal Klein, known online as Spizee, has tried the Trouble Bubble Bubble Gum challenge twice after failing his first attempt.
“It felt like just how chewing hot lava basically,” he told TODAY.com. “It was a type of pain that I didn’t expect to have.”
“It really felt like putting fire in your mouth,” he recounted.
The spicy bubble gum challenge is just the latest of many viral TikTok dares sending curious consumers to the hospital.
Some challenges, like the #OneChipChallenge, have resulted in several hours of pain and hospitalization, but other more dangerous viral challenges, like the “blackout challenge,” have resulted in several deaths.