Asthma organization warns of new social media trend using hydrogen peroxide to treat COVID-19

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has issued a warning about a concerning new social media trend in which people are breathing in hydrogen peroxide through nebulizers to treat or prevent COVID-19. 

In a Tuesday blog post, the AAFA said that the “dangerous trend” was circulating on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. 

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“DO NOT put hydrogen peroxide into your nebulizer and breathe it in. This is dangerous!” the association said. “It is not a way to prevent nor treat COVID-19,” the group added.

Still, the trend is one of many that people have claimed are home remedies to treat or prevent COVID-19. 

“Only use asthma medicine prescribed by your doctor in your nebulizer,” the AAFA noted. “Other chemicals can be harmful to your lungs.”

A nebulizer is a breathing machine that is used to treat asthma, turning liquid asthma medicine into a mist that is inhaled through a mask or mouthpiece.

Hydrogen peroxide is a type of antiseptic frequently used to treat minor cuts and burns or as a household germ-killer.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture notes that while hydrogen peroxide is generally considered safe for human exposure at low doses – and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affirmed it as Generally Recognized as Safe with certain limitations – “acute irritation and systemic toxicity is possible in humans exposed to moderate to high doses of hydrogen peroxide.”

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Pulmonary, respiratory and gastrointestinal irritation can occur depending on how diluted it is.