Doctors are speaking up about a dangerous teen YouTube craze known as the cinnamon challenge which has sent children to hospitals and caused a surge in calls to U.S. poison control centers.

The Associated Press is reporting that the prank involves daring someone to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon in 60 seconds without water. It might sound harmless, but cinnamon is a corrosive spice that can cause choking, breathing trouble and even collapsed lungs.

At present, there are over 40,000 Cinnamon Challenge videos circulating on YouTube depicting teens trying to swallow the spice.

An article published today in Pediatrics says that at least 30 teens nationwide have needed medical attention after taking the challenge last year.

The article’s co-author, Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz, a pediatrics professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, explained that cinnamon is made from tree bark and contains cellulose fibers that don’t break down easily. In some animal testing, cinnamon has been known to scar the lungs.

Sixteen year-old Dejah Reed from Ypsilanti, Michigan found out the hard way that the cinnamon challenge was anything but cool. She took the challenge with a friend and started laughing, which caused her to inhale the spice into her lungs. All of a sudden, she couldn’t breathe.

Her father, Fred Reed, arrived home a short time later to find Dejah “a pale bluish color. It was very terrifying. I threw her over my shoulder” and drove her to a nearby hospital.

Dejah spent four days in the hospital and still needs to use an inhaler when she gets short of breath even though the teen never had any asthma or breathing problems before.

Don’t take the cinnamon challenge, she now tells anyone who will listen.

“It’s not cool and it’s dangerous.”

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