People in bitterly cold areas have been warned off a ‘boiling water challenge’ where they throw steaming liquid in the air to turn it into snow due to people being scolded by trying it.
As a polar vortex gripped large expanses of the United States, with Chicago nicknamed Chiberia it was so afflicted by low temperatures, people began videoing the fad.
In some clips, people were seen launching the water then seeing it descend as snow because it was so cold.
However, now people have been treated at burns centres due to it not working and boiling water landing on them, CNN reports.
Eight people have been treated at Chicago's Loyola University Medical Center since last week, spokeswoman Chris Vicik said.
There were burns on on feet, arms, hands and faces.
Iowa and Minneapolis centres also saw people admitted.
Angie Whitley, of Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis told CNN: “Some of them being parents or adults (who) go outside with their kids to do it, and the kids kind of get excited and step in the way, and the parents end up throwing the water on the children.
"Or, people throw it in the air just as a gust of wind comes, and (the water) catches the wind and it blows it back on them – so we see some face scald injuries from that.”
More than 40 cold-temperature records were broken in the US last week.
Temperatures dropped to as low as -35C in some areas, with the cold weather being linked to at least 12 deaths.
