A followup on the dangers of energy drinks

In November, Redhawksonline posted a story about a report written by the Food and Drug Administration that linked the deaths of five people to drinking Monster Energy beverages over the past three years. Although the FDA went on to say that there hasn’t been enough evidence to take action against the caffeine levels in drinks, at least one of these deaths caused quite a stir.

After a 14-year-old girl, Anais Fournier, died in December 2011 of a heart attack, her parents blamed Monster Energy and proceeded to sue Monster Beverage Corporation. During a press conference March 4 Monster announced that, according to the physicians they hired, their drink was not responsible for Fournier’s death. Nonetheless, her death was a contributing factor to Chicago Alderman Ed Burke’s proposal to the Committee on Health and Environmental Protection that high-caffeinated energy drinks be banned in that city.

While a ban such as this seems very radical, countries such as Australia and New Zealand already have legal limitations on the caffeine contents of drinks. On March 5 the committee met to discuss this proposal, after several hours the meeting was adjourned before any actions were made and the proposal fizzled out. But now a new bill is being worked on by the city’s Committee on Health and Environmental Protection that would ban the sale of certain energy drinks based on caffeine content, or could prevent these drinks to being sold to persons under 21. Although this bill isn’t yet ready for a full City Council vote, it has sparked lots of thought in people that drink energy drinks often, who are know becoming more aware of the dangerous ingredients and caffeine levels in their favorite drinks. “It’s actually amazing how much caffeine are in [energy drinks], it’s also pretty scary when you actually think about it”, said Minnehaha Academy sophomore Jenn Mrozek.