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Caffeinated Drink Cited in Reports of 13 DeathsBy BARRY MEIER
Published: November 14, 2012 93 Comments
Federal officials have received reports of 13 deaths over the last four years that cited the possible involvement of 5-Hour Energy, a highly caffeinated energy shot, according to Food and Drug Administration records and an interview with an agency official.
The disclosure of the reports is the second time in recent weeks that F.D.A. filings citing energy drinks and deaths have emerged. Last month, the agency acknowledged it had received five fatality filings mentioning another popular energy drink, Monster Energy.
Since 2009, 5-Hour Energy has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the F.D.A., including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, a spontaneous abortion, a summary of F.D.A. records reviewed by The New York Times showed.
The filing of an incident report with the F.D.A. does not mean that a product was responsible for a death or an injury or contributed in any way to it. Such reports can be fragmentary in nature and difficult to investigate.
The distributor of 5-Hour Energy, Living Essentials of Farmington Hills, Mich., did not respond to written questions about the filings, and its top executive declined to be interviewed. Living Essentials is a unit of the product’s producer, Innovation Ventures.
However, in a statement, Living Essentials said the product was safe when used as directed and that it was “unaware of any deaths proven to be caused by the consumption of 5-Hour Energy.”
Since the public disclosure of reports about Monster Energy, its producer, Monster Beverage of Corona, Calif., has repeatedly said that its products are safe, adding that they were not the cause of any of the health problems reported to the F.D.A.
Shares of Monster Beverage, which traded above $80 earlier this year, closed Wednesday at $44.74.
The fast-growing energy drink industry is facing increasing scrutiny over issues like labeling disclosures and possible health risks. Some lawmakers are calling on the F.D.A. to increase its regulation of the products and the New York State attorney general is investigating the practices of several producers.
Unlike Red Bull, Monster Energy and some other energy drinks that look like beverages, 5-Hour Energy is sold in a two-ounce bottle referred to as a shot. The company does not disclose the amount of caffeine in each bottle, but a recent article published by Consumer Reports placed that level at about 215 milligrams.
An eight-ounce cup of coffee, depending on how it is made, can contain from 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine.
The F.D.A. has stated that it does not have sufficient scientific evidence to justify changing how it regulates caffeine or other ingredients in energy products. The issue of how to do so is complicated by the fact that some high-caffeine drinks, like Red Bull, are sold under agency rules governing beverages, while others, like 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy, are marketed as dietary supplements. The categories have differing ingredient rules and reporting requirements.
In an interview Wednesday, Daniel Fabricant, the director of the agency’s division of dietary supplement programs, said the agency was looking into the death reports that cited 5-Hour Energy. He said that while medical information in such reports could rule out a link with the product, other reports could contain insufficient information to determine what role, if any, a supplement might have played.
Mr. Fabricant said that the 13 fatality reports that mentioned 5-Hour Energy had all been submitted to the F.D.A. by Living Essentials. Since late 2008, producers of dietary supplements are required to notify the F.D.A. when they become aware of a death or serious injury that may be related to their product.
Currently, the agency does not publicly disclose adverse event filings about dietary supplements like 5-Hour Energy. Companies that market energy drinks as beverages are not required to make such reports to the agency, although they can do so voluntarily, Mr. Fabricant said.
Along with caffeine, 5-Hour Energy contains other ingredients, like very high levels of certain B vitamins and a substance called taurine.
Reached by telephone, the chief executive of the Living Essentials, Manoj Bhargava, declined to discuss the filings and said he believed an article about the reports would cast the company in a negative light.
“I am not interested in making any comment,” Mr. Bhargava said.
Subsequently, the company issued a statement that said, among other things, that it took “reports of any potential adverse event tied to our products very seriously,” adding that the company complied “with all of our reporting requirements” to the F.D.A.
The company also stated that it marketed 5-Hour Energy to “hardworking adults who need an extra boost of energy.” The product’s label recommends that it not be used by woman who are pregnant or by children under 12 years of age.
The number of reports filed with the F.D.A. that mention 5-Hour Energy appears particularly striking. In 2010, for example, the F.D.A. received a total of 17 fatality reports that mentioned a dietary supplement or a weight loss product, two broad categories that cover more than 50,000 products, according to Mr. Fabricant, the F.D.A. official.
He added that it was difficult to put the volume of 5-Hour Energy filings into context because he believed that some supplement manufacturers were probably not following the mandated reporting rules and that consumers and doctors might also be unaware that they can file incident reports with the agency. Last year, the F.D.A. received only 2,000 reports about fatalities or serious injuries that cited dietary supplements and weight loss products, he said.
Another federal agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reported late last year that more than 13,000 emergency room visits in 2009 were associated with energy drinks alone.
Along with Living Essentials, The Times sent queries last week to several producers asking whether they had received reports linking fatalities or serious injuries to their products.
Representatives for two of those companies — Red Bull and Coca-Cola, which sells NOS and Full Throttle — said they were unaware of any such reports. A representative for PepsiCo, which makes Amp, also said it was unaware of any such reports.
In addition to Red Bull, NOS, Full Throttle and Amp are also marketed as beverages, rather than as dietary supplements.
Since all the executives in my building are hopped up on this crap all the time, I'm surprised it isn't higher.
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I'd hazard a guess that the fatalities were likely younger individuals or else they had pre-existing conditions that made them susceptible to caffine overdose.
Up here, there's a move towards getting government to treat all energy drinks in the same way as alcohol and thus, limiting its sale to kids 18 and under.
Probably wouldn't be a terribad idea either, considering how many of the local high school students I see every day having a purely 'liquid lunch' of just one or two energy drinks...
I'd agree with keeping them from kids. Not only for health risks, but there's also the annoyance factor. The last time I was at my FLGS, there were a pair of teenagers slurping on Monster Energy and talking 90 miles a minute. One asked me what I play and then started telling me about his army before I could finish answering him.
Also, get off my lawn and get a hair cut and turn down your music. Rabble, rabble, rabble...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/16 15:29:02
Yah this stuff is jet fuel. I had one on an empty stomach one time and it basically ruined my day. I'm surprised the mix of caffeine and alcohol of just mass amounts of caffeine haven't killed more to be honest.
Agreed. In the words of Ron White, "You can't fix stupid."
No amount of law will prevent people from dying or misusing products. Here in Washington state, lighters that look like toys are illegal because some neglectful parents let their kids play with them and wound up burning down the house.
GW Rules Interpretation Syndrom. GWRIS. Causes people to second guess a rule in a book because that's what they would have had to do in a GW system.
SilverMK2 wrote: "Well, I have epilepsy and was holding a knife when I had a seizure... I couldn't help it! I was just trying to chop the vegetables for dinner!"
Testify wrote: The affects of caffeine are grossly exaggerated. It's marginally more effective than placebo.
Caffeine has an effect on the metabolism, the problem is the dosage:
You drink a pint of beer, largely no effect, you drink a whole keg and you're asking for trouble.
Similarly, you drink a cup of coffee, largely no effect, but some of these energy drinks are known to contain caffeine quantities in excess of a quadruple espresso, mix that with the taurine, sugar and other stimulants and you're asking for trouble...
And that is why you hear people yelling FOR THE EMPEROR rather than FOR LOGICAL AND QUANTIFIABLE BASED DECISIONS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE MAJORITY!
Phototoxin wrote:Kids go in , they waste tonnes of money on marnus calgar and his landraider, the slaneshi-like GW revel at this lust and short term profit margin pleasure. Meanwhile father time and cunning lord tzeentch whisper 'our games are better AND cheaper' and then players leave for mantic and warmahordes.
daveNYC wrote:The Craftworld guys, who are such stick-in-the-muds that they manage to make the Ultramarines look like an Ibiza nightclub that spiked its Red Bull with LSD.
I've seldom drank an energy drink and thought to myself afterwards, "Why self, was that ever a splendid notion!"
Also, in college, I overdosed on caffeine finishing a programming assignment and prepping for a big test in the same class. I threw up a lot and then slept for about 18 hours afterwards. We're talking, like, 10 (maybe more) Nodoze spread out over about 24 hours being washed down with those bottled Starbucks mocha things. I was the captain of the bad-decision squad in college.
The end point is that I can't imagine how many of these things you'd have to do to actually kill yourself.
daedalus wrote: I've seldom drank an energy drink and thought to myself afterwards, "Why self, was that ever a splendid notion!"
Also, in college, I overdosed on caffeine finishing a programming assignment and prepping for a big test in the same class. I threw up a lot and then slept for about 18 hours afterwards. We're talking, like, 10 (maybe more) Nodoze spread out over about 24 hours being washed down with those bottled Starbucks mocha things. I was the captain of the bad-decision squad in college.
The end point is that I can't imagine how many of these things you'd have to do to actually kill yourself.
Testify wrote: The affects of caffeine are grossly exaggerated. It's marginally more effective than placebo.
Caffeine has an effect on the metabolism, the problem is the dosage:
You drink a pint of beer, largely no effect, you drink a whole keg and you're asking for trouble.
Similarly, you drink a cup of coffee, largely no effect, but some of these energy drinks are known to contain caffeine quantities in excess of a quadruple espresso, mix that with the taurine, sugar and other stimulants and you're asking for trouble...
If that were true there would be proof. There's not.
This article says 13 people have died having had this energy drink "mentioned".
How many people die in New York every year? You could draw this correlation with every product. I bet you thousands of people die after eating apples in New York.
So yeah. Large drinks company paying the newspaper to run a story about their product. Pick up any newspaper and about 10% of the stories will be like this.
Unnessesarily extravegant word of the week award goes to jcress410 for this:
jcress wrote:Seem super off topic to complain about epistemology on a thread about tactics.
I'm skeptical. "A recent study shows that in over 50% of heart attack cases, the deceased had consumed at least 8oz of water within the previous 24 hours". I mean it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they were packing some kind of hazardous crap into those things, but going by the article this doesn't sound very substantial. I they're mostly just caffeine & sugar-water right? You'd have to drink an astounding amount to do any real damage to a healthy person.
C++, but it was for my compiler construction class, so in essence, I was writing my own language. On the bright side, it was that class that taught me that I didn't want to be a code monkey for the rest of my life.
kronk wrote:ITT: non-doctors refuting medical examiners that have linked 5-hour energy to 13 deaths.
Hey, I'm not refuting, just saying that the amount needed to be taken must surely be staggering.
kronk wrote: ITT: non-doctors refuting medical examiners that have linked 5-hour energy to 13 deaths.
"Linked" really isn't the strongest term in world, if my understanding is correct. (Any doctor types are feel free to correct me on this If I'm way off base)
Media loves to run basic, preliminary findings as huge overblown stories.
I'm more than a little concerned about this . I drink this stuff quite regularly . Or is this going to be like that Red Bull related death/urban legend a few years back ? You know , where this 17 year old drank something like 7 cans and played a game of basketball . And dropped dead .
Up here, there's a move towards getting government to treat all energy drinks in the same way as alcohol and thus, limiting its sale to kids 18 and under.
So . How does the local law enforcement system deal with all the inebriated kindergarden pupils ? Seperate lock up ?
kronk wrote: ITT: non-doctors refuting medical examiners that have linked 5-hour energy to 13 deaths.
"The filing of an incident report with the F.D.A. does not mean that a product was responsible for a death or an injury or contributed in any way to it. . "
Read the OP. I did.
Unnessesarily extravegant word of the week award goes to jcress410 for this:
jcress wrote:Seem super off topic to complain about epistemology on a thread about tactics.
All those little energy drinks (and some of the bigger ones) are just mass overdoses of vitamin B (I think 400% of the recommended daily value). Taking into consideration that your kidneys/liver can only filter out so much of the excess vitamin B; mass overdose will have some health issues.
I immediately imagine some slow-blinking-mouth-breather saying "Hey guys. I'm gonna chug this whole box. Hurr hurr." with another replying "Dude! You're, like, gonna be so hyper." I chalk these up as evidence that Darwinism is still in effect on humans.
Every day that passes, I feel that we are approaching the point of no return on the road to Idiocracy.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/16 18:17:09
I'd agree with keeping them from kids. Not only for health risks, but there's also the annoyance factor. The last time I was at my FLGS, there were a pair of teenagers slurping on Monster Energy and talking 90 miles a minute. One asked me what I play and then started telling me about his army before I could finish answering him.
Also, get off my lawn and get a hair cut and turn down your music. Rabble, rabble, rabble...
Horse gak. Thats like saying kids can't even have chickory coffee, which is stronger.
I once had nine cups of coffee in an hour and half. The walls were vibrating.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/16 18:48:50
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
I once had to suffer through some Army mandated Substance Abuse class (the mandatory, Heyyyyyyy we're ASAP and here's how we can help you, you dirty alcoholic, type of class) and the presenter showed a video focusing on energy drinks....
Now, this is coming from the Army, so, as I always say, when the army has done "research", to take with a grain of salt.... But, according to their "studies" the additional ingredients in most energy drinks, like Taurine, and Guarana, etc. are really nothing more than additional sugars, on top of the HFCS, and generic caffeine that are the base, and hallmark of such drinks... So, apparently, the labels on these drinks are highly misleading, because of the "fact" that these herbal suppliments are actually additional sugar sources that aren't listed as such.
Ensis Ferrae wrote: So, apparently, the labels on these drinks are highly misleading, because of the "fact" that these herbal suppliments are actually additional sugar sources that aren't listed as such.
That's really nothing new, thus the prevalence of labels that say things like "Ingredients: Sugar, Glucose, Fructose..."
Up here, there's a move towards getting government to treat all energy drinks in the same way as alcohol and thus, limiting its sale to kids 18 and under.
Probably wouldn't be a terribad idea either, considering how many of the local high school students I see every day having a purely 'liquid lunch' of just one or two energy drinks...
I'm assuming we've gotten our over/under mixed up right?
my heart was pounding and felt a tightening in my chest.
I was sweating like a pig
headache
and for whatever reason, it gave me super hearing, I could hear all the pencils in the classroom hit the desks over and over with the sound of the pencils making strokes on the paper.
I don't drink coffee, and what little caffeine I drink is in soda. I've learned before I head into a final, it is best to get a god night's sleep, drink plenty of water and NOT pull an all-nighter.
Not sure if I am allergic to caffeine or don't have a tolerance for high levels of caffeine. =/
some of my friends will drink 2 or 3 of them a day.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/17 06:22:02
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
Not allergic, just super sensitive. Thats what Caffeine can do to you in high amounts.
An overdose is basically your body running at 10 billion RPMs. if you have a weak heart or something, its lights out.
I remember the first time I had any real amount of Caffeine. I got a big Frappachino at Starbucks. My heart raced for several hours and I was very aware of everything. Fortunatly I had Fencing that day so I had an outlet for the energy.
That was also the last caffeine rush I ever had. Now its like I just can't metabolize it. I can drink tons of it in any form and just go right to sleep.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/17 06:30:46
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Testify wrote: The affects of caffeine are grossly exaggerated. It's marginally more effective than placebo.
Come on, man. It's one thing to say the likelihood the deaths were caused by the drinks is small, and it's another entirely to just, like, flat out lie and spout nonsense - nonsense that literally anyone capable of typing "effects of caffeine" into google will find hundreds of scholarly articles disproving you.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/11/17 07:37:48
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
5000pts 
6000pts 
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3000+
Death Company, Converted Space Hulk Termies
