The Pop Rocks scandal started when someone somewhere decided that Pop Rocks would explode in your stomach if consumed with soda. No mere cautionary tale, this tidbit escalated into near hysteria, claiming that children were dropping dead everywhere, including a TV personality who was, and likely still is, alive.

Here's how the rumor was subdued (eventually):

•  Pop Rocks manufacturer General Foods took out a full-page ad in 45 major publications nationwide promising nervous parents that Pop Rocks were completely safe. 

•  General Foods sent 50,000 letters to school principals, explaining why Pop Rocks were completely safe so they ease parental hysteria. 

• The company sent Pop Rocks creator William A. Mitchell on a speaking tour to calm parents via facts. Did you know, he reassured them, the worst that could happen if you mix Pop Rocks and soda is you burp. 

• The FDA set up a hotline to ease parents’ fears that their kids may have taken a lethal dose of Pop Rocks and soda. 

• The company discontinued the explosive candy until everything calmed down.

In spite of the horrors circulating about Pop Rocks, kids still loved them. Maybe eating them was so daring. So rich with defiance. So deliciously wrong. Pop

Rocks were also profitable for General Foods who launched a Pop Rock spinoff of finely ground candy crystals called “Space Dust.” Unfortunately, the nation was reeling from a rise in the use of powdery, and legitimately lethal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and new-comer PCP. Even worse for Pop Rocks, the street name for PCP was angel dust. In short, Angel Dust, even after being renamed Cosmic Candy, was a bust.