Another day, another body horror moment from the internet to make you spiral.A TikTok went viral after a woman said she ingested glass from her reusable glass straw — not seeing anything was amiss until she felt something solid slide down her throat and noticed the missing shard from her product.In the video where Breezie O’Brien shared her harrowing experience, she said that not long after that initial moment of horror, a large burp led to her discovering there was also blood in her mouth.Unsurprisingly, she opted to get herself to the hospital.Ultimately, by the time she was through with CAT scans, she was told the glass had already left her stomach — and she was advised to look out for bleeding and hopefully see the shard pass the old-fashioned way (No. 2, baby!). Ivan Bajic via Getty ImagesA viral Tiktok has the internet talking about the dangers of glass straws. But are they that dangerous?Once she was back home, O’Brien noted that while she had previously recommended the straws to her followers as an influencer, she would no longer endorse them and was working on taking down her original video promoting the product on TikTok Shop.While the mental image of this whole incident is enough to have you plucking similar straws in your home out of your drawers and tossing them into the trash, you might not need to go to that extreme just yet.HuffPost spoke with Dr. Ryan Stanton, president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), about this case and what everyday users of these straws might want to keep in mind going forward. Glass Straw Sipping Safety 101“Just like any glass instrument, whether cup or bowl or whatever, you probably need to be aware of the condition of the glass,” Stanton told HuffPost. “The straw tends to be a relatively thin glass structure. We’ve got some at home, and they rattle around in the dishwasher and inside the drawer. So it’s not terribly uncommon for one of them to get broken or where it could become even more dangerous [and] just get chipped.”A chip might even be more dangerous, as you might not realize the integrity of the straw is compromised until you’ve already put it in your cup — leading to a situation similar to this viral TikTok story. While there is no documented uptick in straw-related injuries (albeit, there are a few freak cases) that would make owning a glass straw or using one on the regular irresponsible or dangerous, there’s still a non-zero amount of straw-related injuries in the U.S. each year.“There’s not a ton of specific data on glass straws, but straws of all types bring in about 1,000 Americans to emergency departments every year,” Stanton said. “To me, the two highest risk are metal and glass straws,” noting that metal straws could also put you at risk for injuring your mouth in some cases, and glass ones have the potential to break and cause lacerations, in addition to the ingestion risks. However, these risks can definitely be mitigated by just being extra thorough when you check these objects between uses. When maintaining your straws, be sure to use a dedicated straw cleaner that is the right size to avoid creating new cracks or causing any additional sneaky damage.“If you’re using glass straws: Good for you. Just make sure that you inspect it, make sure it’s fully intact (that there’s no sharp edges) because if there’s a crack or chip, that itself can be sharp enough to cut and cause an injury to your lips, mouth and tongue,” Stanton said. This also includes making sure there are no cracks or visible damage, and being willing to part ways with the product if it starts to show that wear and tear.The same goes for your metal straws and your plastic ones (though those have their own baggage). “If there is any visibility of any damage or concern, throw it away,” Stanton said. “Don’t use anything that has any damage to it because, like anything glass, a small crack or a small deformity can just be the beginning of an overall failure of the device.”