Smarties® doc hopes maggot threat will "dissuade children from snorting"
By John McDaid | hard deadlines
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| As every parent will agree, the best way to get kids to NOT do something is to tell them not to do it. If that doesn't work, tell them about scary maggots |
Editor’s Note: John McDaid is the driving force behind hard deadlines, a great hyper-local
blog that focuses on Portsmouth. I belatedly
found out that he was the one who broke the local Portsmouth Middle School
Smarties® hysteria story that not only got picked up by local media (which is
where I spotted it) but went viral around the world. This article was noted prominently
in the piece on Smarties® snorting on Snopes.com, the leading site for checking
whether stuff you read on the internet is b.s.
After breaking the story of the Portsmouth school district
"Smartie snorting" memo, harddeadlines
reached out to the doctor who was quoted, Dr. Oren Friedman, Associate
Professor, Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Pennsylvania. We asked if
he had specifically studied Smartie snorting and if he could comment on the
incidence and prevalence of Smarties-related maggot infestation. Here's his
unedited reply.
We did not do a study on this in
particular....however...we often see patients with foreign materials in their
noses which can cause a variety of problems -- even years after the insult
occurs. I recently removed an oyster shell from a 27 year old woman who had no
idea it had been there. when I showed her what was in her nose, she said
"I'm going to kill them" -- she remembered that when she was 5 or 6
years old, her older brothers were playing with these shells when they were at
the beach, and she believed they inserted it into her nose when she was asleep.
Just a funny anecdote that relates to the fact that things placed in the nose
can remain there for years and cause problems over the long term.
The sugar in smarties can irritate the nose acutely
and over the long term. In addition to the local irritation from the foreign
material and powder, over time, the smarties can lead to various overgrowth of
bugs including viruses/fungi/bacteria.
The quote regarding the maggots relates
to the fact that when a foreign material, and especially a food, resides in the
nose for a long period of time, infections may occur, worms may reside in the
nose, even maggots may flourish in this environment -- and we have encountered such
a problem in the past. Hopefully the thought of possible maggots in the nose
will help dissuade children from snorting the smarties.
When
asked in a follow-up if he had actually ever seen Smarties cause maggots, he
replied, "just a possibility. i have seen maggots in the nose from other
food products in general."
So, the
one actual quoted source in the memo sent to parents describes the threat as
only a "possibility." There's no way to verify the claims about
respiratory arrest, laryngospasm, or leading to drugs.
I’m not
questioning that this may be something that kids have tried — one source
told me kids had been seen doing it on Tuesday. But I’m shocked at the sloppy,
loopy, cut-and-paste content of the message that PMS sent home. Parents deserve
better communication from those responsible for their children.
For
pickup in other media, see Portsmouth Patch, EastBayRI, The Newport Buzz, TurnTo10.com, ABC6.com
Update: And...BoingBoing
Updates, 1/21 More pickup: BoingBoing again, Gawker, Washington Post, Daily Mail (UK), HuffPo (UK), CBS News