FDA Bans Pure Bulk Caffeine Products, Citing "significant Public Health Concern"
Companies can no longer sell bulk packages of liquid or powdered caffeine directly to consumers, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The policy will take immediate effect "given the significant public health concern," according to the agency's statement released Friday. "Highly concentrated and pure caffeine, often sold in bulk packages, have been linked to at least two deaths in otherwise healthy individuals," the agency stated.
[...] In small doses, if you're otherwise healthy, caffeine shouldn't kill you. But part of the issue is that highly concentrated caffeine looks nothing like the kinds of caffeinated products we're used to seeing. Instead, it can look like water if it's in a liquid form or sugar if it's powdered. "The consequences of a consumer mistakenly confusing one of these products could be toxic or even lethal," the agency stated.
[...] Between 10 and 14 grams of caffeine is considered life-threatening, according to the FDA's guidelines, though people can have an irregular or rapid heart rate and seizures after taking just a gram. The amount of concentrated caffeine that's considered safe at a time—200 milligrams—is very, very small.
Also at Bloomberg.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday April 17 2018, @06:12PM
I would like to see a citation for "very few people died", possibly modified as "very few people injured". The human IQ distribution hasn't shifted all that much, and seeing how stupid many people are today, I find it dubious that "very few people died". You also need to account for the fact that there was a lot fewer people overall.
I don't entirely disagree with you, especially now that the Internet exists where even someone who doesn't know how to use X can reasonably obtain the knowledge to do so. However, I am human and suffer no delusions about my own human fallibility.
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