People across the United States are taking a closer look at their glass drinking straws after a woman was hospitalized for accidentally swallowing a shard of broken glass.
In a video posted to TikTok on November 23, a user posting under the handle @colorful__chaos told viewers “Don’t use glass straws.” According to the clip, the glass straw she had been drinking from chipped. She said she ended up swallowing a piece of it as a result.
The video has been watched 1.3 million times and led to a glut of clips featuring other users checking for cracks in their glass straws. At the time of writing, there are almost 10,000 TikTok videos featuring the hashtag #glassstraws and over 50,000 Instagram posts.
Piper Phillips, 25, from New York City, is among those to film a video featuring the hashtag. Hers is among the most alarming.
Phillips told Newsweek that up until recently, she was a “huge glass straw fan.”
“I’ve been using glass straws probably the past three years since I bought them in my first New York City apartment,” she said. “I make iced lattes at home using my nespresso and feel like they taste so much better out of a glass cup and glass straw.”
Everything changed the day she picked up her camera and started recording a video for her Instagram @piperphillips and TikTok @pipercassidyphillips.
The clip saw Piper take a closer look at the glass straws in her cutlery drawer. The results left her visibly shocked.
As she took a closer look at two of the straws, Piper was speechless after seeing a large crack in one of them. On another day, it could so easily have gone unnoticed, with potentially dangerous results.
“The crack was pretty noticeable but when you’re in a rush in the mornings just trying to get your coffee, it’s one of those things you could easily miss if you’re not looking for it,” she said.
Piper, who is a full-time content creator and the host of @theselfemployedshow, said that while it was a shame to find the crack, it was “better to be safe than sorry.”
Despite the shock of her discovery, Piper is determined to see the bright side in what happened. “I just moved into a new apartment and we’re in the process of getting settled, still decorating the kitchen so it was good timing for a clean out,” she said.
However, despite the enjoyment glass straws provide her, Piper is sad to report that the current viral trend and her own experience with it have put her off them for the time being.
“I think I’m going to try switching to thick metal straws,” she said.
