A few months ago, the analytical and research agency Packaged Facts (PF) noted a sharp increase in the demand for energy drinks. According to the PF experts, the revenue from the sales of this category of products will exceed $21.5 billion by 2017. For comparison, the legendary Coca-Cola Corporation, providing water dispensers all over the world, earns about $47 billion annually.
However, this week, the popular energy drinks industry attracted attention of the US Congress.
Several senators and House members said they intend to restrict or even ban the sale of the caffeinated beverages. The Bill, which is destined to drop the production of energy drinks to the level that was decades ago, most likely, will bear the name of Anais Fournier, 14-year-old resident of Maryland, who died a year and a half ago after she drunk two cans (volume of each was 24-ounce) containing huge doses of caffeine.
The child death forced the US Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an impromptu survey,which quite unexpectedly revealed that every month more than 2.000 inhabitants of the United States have been treated in the emergency rooms with problems caused by the energy drinks.
Non-profit organizations, calling for a healthy lifestyle, instantly published their own statistics: hundreds of Americans die annually after drinking caffeinated beverages, while thousands more have different physical and mental injury. However, the official figures do not appear anywhere else, because doctors do not consider caffeine drinks like substance, threatening human life.
In my opinion, the need to ban energy drinks throughout the country is long overdue. However, until recently, the manufacturers of the caffeine containing poison have always found a way to talk around disgruntled politicians and other public figures.