Call for warning labels for energy drinks

BALTIMORE, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Caffeinated energy drinks should carry prominent labels that note caffeine doses and warn of potential health risks, U.S. scientists suggest.

Scientists at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, who have spent decades researching the effects of caffeine, report the U.S. market for energy drinks is an estimated $5.4 billion and is expanding at a rate of 55 percent annually.

Advertising campaigns, which principally target teens and young adults, promote the performance-enhancing and stimulant effects of energy drinks and appear to glorify drug use, the scientists wrote in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"The caffeine content of energy drinks varies over a 10-fold range, with some containing the equivalent of 14 cans of Coca-Cola, yet the caffeine amounts are often unlabeled and few include warnings about the potential health risks of caffeine intoxication," Roland Griffiths, a Johns Hopkins professor, said in a statement.

Without adequate, prominent labeling; consumers most likely won't realize whether they are getting a little or a lot of caffeine, Griffiths said.

Caffeine intoxication is marked by nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremors, rapid heartbeats, restlessness, pacing and, in rare cases, death, the article said.