A new report by government health experts has found little evidence energy drinks pose more of a threat to children than tea, coffee, cola and chocolate.
This week a paper for the Committee on Toxicity, which provides advice to the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency on the toxicity of chemicals in food and drink, said claims made over the worst impacts of the drinks were difficult to differentiate from normal teenage behaviour.
The report comes as the government nears the conclusion of a 12-week consultation, launched at the end of August, on its plans for a sweeping ban on energy drink sales to children. It has previously claimed the products can wreck children’s mental health through side effects such as lack of sleep.
This week’s “scoping paper” considered by the COT, found negative health-related effects from energy drinks in both adolescents and adults largely related to ingestion of large quantities of the drinks.
It says evidence suggests even modest amounts of consumption seem to exert measurable effects on heart rate and ECG parameters that ‘may be a risk to health of people with underlying conditions such as long QT syndrome’.
Yet the paper was far less conclusive on the impact of energy drink consumption on young people as a whole.
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‘Use of “energy drinks” have been related to adverse effects including poor sleep, reduced school performance and acute physical effects probably related to excess caffeine consumption,’ it said.
’Energy drinks are also consumed mixed with alcohol, which may lead to exacerbation of “risky” behaviours.
‘However, any effects of “energy drinks” on adolescent behaviour overlie the already-documented behaviour patterns of this age group, arising from biological and social development, and since most of the studies are cross sectional or small-group longitudinal, it is difficult to determine how “energy drink” consumption affects or is affected by this background.’
The paper added there was ‘long-standing legislation in place’ to protect children from the impact of mixing alcohol and energy drinks and said that the government’s soft drinks sugar levy, which has resulted in a reduction in sugar in energy and soft drinks, would reduce the impact of sugar from the drinks.
It concluded: ‘Only a small proportion of children and adolescents admit to “energy drink” use at levels likely to cause toxicity. Although the effects of low-level chronic consumption of these drinks are unknown, children and adolescents have long had chronic exposure to caffeine and its metabolites through consuming tea, coffee, cola and chocolate.’
Read more: How will supermarkets enforce an under-16 energy drink ban?
Under the government’s plans, sales of energy drinks could be banned in England to anybody under 16, amid fears expressed by ministers, including Theresa May, that they are damaging children’s health.
The government consultation, which ends next month, is asking for views on whether the ban should apply to under-16s or under-18s.
The DH claimed when it launched the consultation that evidence suggested excessive consumption of energy drinks by children was linked to negative health outcomes. These included affecting children’s physical and mental health, as well as sleep latency and duration. It said research had found that adolescents (aged 12-18) who consume energy drinks several times a day were 4.5 times more likely to report experiencing headaches, 3.5 times more likely to report sleeping problems, and 3.4 times more likely to report experiencing tiredness than adolescents who did not consume energy drinks.
Energy drink sales to children have already been subject to a major voluntary crackdown by supermarkets. Waitrose was the first UK retailer to restrict the sale of energy drinks to people over 16 years of age, followed by all of the major food retailers in the UK, and most recently by Boots.
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