Energy drink makers on defensive at United States Senate hearing

US President Barack Obama (L) and South African President Jacob Zuma give a press conference at the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa, June 29, 2013. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

WASHINGTON, Thursday

The multi-billion-dollar global energy drink industry joined forces on Capitol Hill on Thursday to fight off growing claims that their caffeine-rich products are hazardous to young people’s health.

Senior executives from Monster Beverage, Red Bull and Rockstar told the US Senate’s Commerce Committee that they do not pitch their drinks at children, despite their aggressive use of social media and sponsorship of action sports.

“Monster is, and always has been, committed to ensuring that all of the ingredients in its energy drinks, including caffeine, are safe and in regulatory compliance for their intended use,” Monster Beverage chief executive Rodney Sacks said.

Energy drinks are a small but growing segment in the non-alcoholic beverage industry in the United States, but health experts have expressed concern that their caffeine content poses risks in youngsters as heart arrhythmia and higher blood pressure.

Last month, the American Medical Association called for a ban on the marketing of energy drinks to children and teenagers, said Senator Jay Rockefeller, the commerce committee chairman, at the start of the hearing.

He stated that in the first six months of this year, poison control centers in the United States received about 1,500 reports involving energy drinks, “more than half of which involved children under the age of 18.”

Sitting in the hearing room was Wendy Crossland, who in October 2012 sued Monster Beverage after her daughter Anais Fournier died in December 2011 after consuming two 24-ounce cans of Monster energy drink within 24 hours.

The cause of death, according to the girls’ doctors in Maryland, was caffeine toxicity.

Monster Beverage’s Sacks argued that, at 160 milligrams, a 16-ounce can of Monster Energy — its best-selling product — had just under half the caffeine of a similar-sized cup of Starbucks coffee. (AFP)