At least 10 Massachusetts elementary school students hospitalised after chewing spicy gum

The local fire chief says the gum was “equivalent to basically what’s commonly referred to as pepper spray”

Dexter Park School in Western Massachusetts (Screenshot / Western Mass News)

At least 10 Massachusetts elementary school students were taken to the hospital after chewing spicy gum.

The incident took place at Dexter Park Elementary School in Orange in north-central Massachusetts on Tuesday.

Liam Ellis, who attends fourth grade at the school but did not have any of the gum, told Western Mass News that it was “a little crazy” and that he “got a little scared about all of it”.

His mother, Mallory Ellis, told the outlet that he “has food allergies, so it’s a really scary thing for me that he possibly could have eaten something he wasn’t supposed to have”.

James Young Jr, the local fire chief, told the Western Mass News that the gum was measured to be at 16 million Scoville units, “which is equivalent to basically what’s commonly referred to as pepper spray, so a very spicy or hot agent that the kids were exposed to”.

“It can cause skin irritation, as well as respiratory, and airway inflammation,” he added.

The gum is available over-the-counter at online shops such as Amazon.

Another parent at the school, Amelia Dynice, called it “scary” and said that consumers “shouldn’t be able to buy that on Amazon”.

The fire chief added that he’s worried about “students with underlying medical conditions, such as asthma or pre-existing respiratory conditions.”

“When they inhale something like that, it can exacerbate their current medical condition,” he said.

Chief Young Jr also told the publication that two ambulances arrived at the school and four other communities in the area also responded to the incident.

“It’s always a concern that we have is, when we respond to an incident like that, somebody else could have another person that we wouldn’t be available to respond to, so it does stretch our local resources very thin,” he said.

Six children were taken to hospital in ambulances and four were taken by their guardians.

One parent, who chose to remain anonymous, said her daughter was taken to hospital in an ambulance after only smelling the gum and her cheeks still became red and swollen. The child left the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

“Kids are curious and they are going to investigate things like this, but not to bring things like this to school,” Chief Young Jr told Western Mass News. “Don’t share products amongst each other, and if you see something, say something to the adults that are in charge of the school, so they can prevent something like this from happening.”

The town superintendent told Western Mass News in a statement that “appropriate action was taken to ensure the safety of our students. The situation is still an active investigation with safety personnel as well as the school’s own investigation. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken upon the completion of the investigation”.