Parents are being urgently warned of a dangerous online social media craze which can cause people to have heart attacks and die instantly. Giorgia Green, 14, had been out shopping with her mum Clare in May 2022 and had bought a new bottle of her favourite deodorant.
When she got home she sprayed it around the room. She was found dead in her bed, in a blanket she had covered with the deodorant. Her dad Paul told The Sun: “I sat in hospital, holding my daughter’s hand and I couldn’t believe what had happened. I could barely speak. My baby was gone.”
Now, Giorgia’s parents are warning other families about the dangers of chroming, a new craze sweeping social media.
Chroming, also known as huffing, is inhaling toxic chemicals to create a temporary high. It is done using things like paint, aerosol cans and glue. There has been a rise in Gen Z experimenting with solvent abuse as it becomes trendy on social media.
It also claimed the life of 13-year-old Australian Esra Haynes in March of this year. TikTok has since removed videos of the dangerous challenge from its app.
Giorgia’s parents, Paul and Clare, are calling on manufacturers to put bigger warning labels on cans to make parents more aware they can kill, so that more youngsters don’t suffer the same fate. Aerosol cans currently have “keep out of reach of children” and “solvent abuse can kill” labels but Paul says the writing is too small.
Paul said: “Giorgia might not have died under the same circumstances as Esra in Australia, but we found it very upsetting that someone had died from the same product.
“I really worry about this becoming a social media trend because people can die in an instant – that’s what’s so scary about aerosols.”
Stephen Ream, director of the Re-Solv charity, warned youngsters against ‘chroming’, adding: “Crazes or challenges seem to flare up locally and a friendship group might have a go, then some people find they like it and carry on inhaling secretly.
“It’s very dangerous. It’s flammable so there’s always a risk of fire, but the real risk is death because the heart goes into an irregular beat and then stops.”
