A Boston hospital and health officials are warning that a new trending TikTok treat-making video is causing severe burns in patients, The Washington Post reported Aug. 15.
The videos demonstrate the making of tanghulu, a Chinese treat of fruit skewers coated in crystallized sugar, have gained millions of views, and sent many children and adults to the hospital. The treat is made by microwaving or baking sugar to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then dipping skewers of fruit into the mixture. If spilled or splattered, the melted sugar can cause multiple small, deep-scalding burns.
On Aug. 14, Shriners Children's Boston released a warning to the public, noting staff were seeing an uptick in children with severe burns due to the higher boiling point of sugar. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Colleen Ryan, MD, a surgeon at Shriners, said she has seen 10 burn cases attributed to preparing the treat within the last couple of months, most often on the hands and face. Some children are putting the sugar in paper products instead of in glass bowls. In the microwave, melted sugar can cause the bowl to stick so when children try to pull it out, the melted sugar splatters onto their skin.
"I [emailed] some of my colleagues … if they had seen it," Dr. Ryan told Boston.com. "I immediately got responses from all over the country, from Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina and California. I even got one from Australia."