They're full of caffeine and can pack a punch. Last week, energy drinks were the topic of a public standing committee hearing.
And what's being said about the high-caffeine drinks should serve as a wake-up call to parents who allow their children to consume these beverages.
According to the president of the P.E.I. Medical Society, the drinks could potentially cause death and should be banned.
"In some energy drinks there's more caffeine in a single can than the daily recommended amount for even an adult, never mind a 12-year-old child," Dr. Bill Scantlebury told the Standing Committee on Social Development.
He, along with the P.E.I. Medical Society, wants the drinks banned.
It was the lifting of another ban that led to the increase in the sale of these drinks on P.E.I.
Once the Province lifted the ban on the sale of canned beverages, it paved the way for the sale of the energy drinks, most with trendy names and packaging attractive to pre-teens and teens, in almost every corner store.
The drinks quickly became a novelty among teens who began consuming the beverages as they would water. It was the increased consumption by school-aged children that raised a red flag with the Western School Board.
Its teachers were finding youngsters energized, almost hyper, then, by afternoon, tired and listless. After some investigation, it was found energy drinks were to blame.
Individual schools began sending letters home saying the drinks weren't permitted. Soon, the Western School Board followed, imposing an outright board-wide ban of energy drinks.
Health Canada regulations state the drinks cannot be marketed to children, but it's clear that teens or younger are buying these drinks.
Despite Health Canada regulations, there are energy-drink makers clearly running campaigns, some featuring skateboarders with Wii games, that target teens.
And, unfortunately, far too many stores are willing to sell the drinks to anyone who wants to buy them, including kids as young as eight and 10.
With all this information, it's sad that there wasn't more interest in the public hearings on the topic.
Parents need to wake up and be aware of what their children are consuming, and push government for stricter regulations concerning these potentially harmful drinks before it's too late.
Parents need a wake-up call
- Published on March 9th, 2009
- Published on June 21st, 2010
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Staff ~ The Journal Pioneer
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Comments
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- BB
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:08:00
Maybe instead of worrying so much about banning and taking freedoms away from our youth, we could focus on educating them and getting them involved in the discussion. Maybe then we could actually make some progress, by treating these hyper-energized skateboarding youngsters like human beings instead of unreasonable reckless beasts that need every decision made for them.
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- shannon
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:07:15
We don't care about health risks or even death in children? come on what is wrong with that statement?
If there really is such a health risk to young people why don't we just start selling them in liquor stores with perhaps the same guidelines? -
- George
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:06:12
Betcha if these drinks brought in as much tax dollars as tobacco and alcohal products do then this discussion wouldnt be happening...those are products that are proven to be harmful to EVERYONE in one way or another even if they dont use those products...second and third hand smoke, lives taken and property damage from drunks who drive ect ect. The age restictions are working real well with those products too arent they, not one underage person is smoking or drinking right across Canada HA!!
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- shannon
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:06:08
We don't care about health risks or even death in children? come on what is wrong with that statement?
If there really is such a health risk to young people why don't we just start selling them in liquor stores with perhaps the same guidelines? -
- BB
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:05:36
CITATION NEEDED. The president of the P.E.I. Medical Society needs to cite valid definitive conclusive repeated peer-reviewed studies for these potential deaths that are so vital to this discussion, please, instead of just speculating. The LD50 of caffeine is 150 mg/kg of body mass. That's 1 energy drink per kilogram that the child weighs. After doing some research you'll start to see that arguing using health risks is a dead-end road: Heart palpitations aside, long term caffeine health effects are subtle, show up over a long term (hence long term health effects), and like any medical phenomena that stems from a compound that is in everyone's diet, is prohibitly inseparable from the person under study's general lifestyle (prohibitly meaning, not able to conclusively link as a direct effect of caffeine).
When you start taking the youth into account in this situation you will see actual change, instead of just hand-waving. Plus, the only natural step after banning energy drinks is to require Tim Hortons to ID youth when they buy a large coffee (not decaf, of course). -
- Rainman
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:04:56
Do you think Toronto had meeting on the subject or any other city for that matter? We don't careeeeee.
What next hide them behind the counter?
With all this information, its sad that there wasnt more interest in the public hearings on the topic. -
- George
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:04:30
Betcha if these drinks brought in as much tax dollars as tobacco and alcohal products do then this discussion wouldnt be happening...those are products that are proven to be harmful to EVERYONE in one way or another even if they dont use those products...second and third hand smoke, lives taken and property damage from drunks who drive ect ect. The age restictions are working real well with those products too arent they, not one underage person is smoking or drinking right across Canada HA!!
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- buzzed_up
- - June 21st, 2010 at 19:04:06
i'm not sure about pei, but in alberta i'm pretty sure you are not actually allowed to sell energy drinks in the liquor stores.
