The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: jmyrlefuller on November 15, 2012, 10:21:10 pm
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233178/FDA-report-5-hour-Energy-linked-13-deaths-abortion-years.html
by Nina Golgowski
November 14, 2012
Thirteen deaths have been linked to the consumption of 5-Hour energy drinks according to a report by the Food and Drug Administration just weeks after a eerily similar report involving caffeinated drinks and death.
With the fatalities the energy 'shot' has been additionally linked to heart attacks, convulsions and in one case a spontaneous abortion according to 90 filings with the FDA released to the New York Times this week.
The reports covering the last three years come just weeks after popular brand Monster Energy was similarly linked by the FDA to five deaths including of a 14-year-old Maryland girl.
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One abortion???
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One abortion???
It goes on to refer to it as a "spontaneous abortion." I don't know why they don't call it a miscarriage-- I also don't know the difference between the two, if any.
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It goes on to refer to it as a "spontaneous abortion." I don't know why they don't call it a miscarriage-- I also don't know the difference between the two, if any.
they are basically the same, as Wiki states, most women object to the term abortion when it comes to the non-planned death of the baby because it carries the stigma of a purposefully abortion. Since these are normally within the first six weeks of pregnancy and a miscarriage this early is not an uncommon occurrence I fail to see how they can blame it on the drink.
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14 "adverse events" out of 300-400 million bottles sold/year certainly makes causality a stretch.
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14 "adverse events" out of 300-400 million bottles sold/year certainly makes causality a stretch.
The question is whether you can simply exclude those other 286 - 386 million bottles per year as not being related to any "adverse event" or whether you have to be agnostic about them because you have no data either way.
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I tried that stuff once and it caused an adverse event . . . it gave me terrible gas. 888what
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I tried that stuff once and it caused an adverse event . . . it gave me terrible gas. 888what
:silly: :silly: :silly: :silly:
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The peripheral circumstances of all the cases would have to be thorughly examined. People take this stuff when they are in some kind of distress by definition. If someone is hung-over, or coming down from some drug, or simply over-worked, these conditions could lead to all the symptoms described.
As far as using the word abortion, that certainly does imply intent. A women can no more have a spontaneous abortion than she could have a spontaneous appendectomy. Abortion is a medical or intentional procedure and does not happen spontaneously. Miscarriage happens spontaneously.
This whole thing is suspect and my trained sniffer nose smells a law firm out there looking to get paid off.
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The peripheral circumstances of all the cases would have to be thorughly examined. People take this stuff when they are in some kind of distress by definition. If someone is hung-over, or coming down from some drug, or simply over-worked, these conditions could lead to all the symptoms described.
As far as using the word abortion, that certainly does imply intent. A women can no more have a spontaneous abortion than she could have a spontaneous appendectomy. Abortion is a medical or intentional procedure and does not happen spontaneously. Miscarriage happens spontaneously.
This whole thing is suspect and my trained sniffer nose smells a law firm out there looking to get paid off.
1. 13 deaths out of how many cans/bottles sold? That's infinitesimal, a statistical micro-blip.
2. I thought abortion was a good thing? All women have a right to commit abortion, don't they?
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The peripheral circumstances of all the cases would have to be thorughly examined. People take this stuff when they are in some kind of distress by definition. If someone is hung-over, or coming down from some drug, or simply over-worked, these conditions could lead to all the symptoms described.
As far as using the word abortion, that certainly does imply intent. A women can no more have a spontaneous abortion than she could have a spontaneous appendectomy. Abortion is a medical or intentional procedure and does not happen spontaneously. Miscarriage happens spontaneously.
This whole thing is suspect and my trained sniffer nose smells a law firm out there looking to get paid off.
Note that the Daily Mail originates in London, so there are probably some British/American differences in the language that come into play here in regard to "spontaneous abortion" vs. "miscarriage."
As for the claims themselves... from personal experience I can say that sudden death is certainly plausible. There was this friend of mine, 19 years old, and apparently one morning he downed several Monster Energy drinks in a row on an empty stomach. This was on top of the fact that he had a (generally benign) heart condition, and when he went out to exert himself (he was playing some sports with friends) he dropped dead of a heart attack.
However, I am almost certain that in his case, as well as the ones being discussed here, that abuse of the product was at fault, not the product itself. Virtually all of the energy drinks out there warn users not to drink them en masse. (Monster is notoriously vague in that regard; they sell a 32-ounce can of their stuff. I tried a smaller can once, and even though I've handled other energy drinks without any problems before, that stuff made me very uncomfortable. Never again.)