The US may be on the verge of banning alcoholic drinks that include added caffeine, guarana, or other stimulants.The Food and Drug Administration has been petitioned by the co-chairs of the 'Youth Access to Alcohol Committee' of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), who argue that alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs) have not been proved to be safe and may cause users to become more reckless than those containing the same amount of just alcohol.
In their letter to the FDA (PDF), the authors say:
"As set forth in published studies, scientific research demonstrates that there is no common understanding or consensus among qualified scientific experts supporting the safety of adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages"
The letter goes on to urge the FDA to remove all AEDs from the US marketplace unless the manufacturers of such drinks can prove that they are safe.
It is unclear at this stage how seriously beverage firms are taking this threat to the lucrative AED market, or indeed how the FDA is likely to respond to the petition. NarcoTrends would suggest that the combination of caffeine and alcohol is not a new phenomenon (liqueur/'Irish' coffee, anyone?) and that any serious side-effects resulting from the combination would likely have made themselves apparent before now. Perhaps this is a case of a committee looking for a purpose?
Read more at New Scientist
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