Have You Ever Tried the "Cinnamon Challenge"? Why Poison Control Centers Are Begging You Not To

I'll bet you've seen the videos of people who have decided to undertake the "Cinnamon Challenge"--and the almost always-disastrous results.

With more than 30,000 (!) YouTube videos of people trying the "Cinnamon Challenge," it's safe to say it's gone viral. Here's how it works: challengers must eat a tablespoon of powdered cinnamon--sans water--without throwing up or letting it spray out of their mouths in a cloud of red dust.
Why? Who even knows? But it's gotten hugely popular--particularly amongst the teen set--to try to show cinnamon who's boss (and recording the results).
If you look at even just one of the videos of people tossing back spoonfuls of cinnamon, you'll see it looks... awful. They cough and gag, spewing cinnamon and often even puking. But it's not actually doing anyone harm--right? According to poison control centers: wrong. In fact, they warn that the "Cinnamon Challenge" could come with serious and possibly even fatal health risks, such as lung damage ("People who cough that hard can have problems that can range from collapsing a lung to having lungs that get really inflamed, or pulmonary edema," says one expert) and pneumonia (from accidentally breathing cinnamon into the lungs). Plus, if someone's allergic to cinnamon and suffers a reaction, they could end up in respiratory distress.
All good reasons to keep cinnamon where it belongs: on gooey cinnamon rolls. Also, chai tea. Or sprinkled in the cinnamon-infused recipe of your choice.
Have you ever heard of the "Cinnamon Challenge" or known anyone who's tried it? And, semi-related: what's your best cinnamony recipe?