It’s bad for you

This week we are being told about the dangers of a chemical closely linked to nicotine – caffeine.

Yet again, people who think they need to control your every waking decision are rounding on another naturally occurring chemical, this time it’s the FDA. Although being in the UK insulates us somewhat from this “warning” you can rest assured that a responsible campaigner for the public health (like the Daily Mail) will mirror these concerns online.

To be fair, they are issuing a warning about the dangers of powdered caffeine but if I’m going to list off things I feel are more dangerous in my house at the moment then it will be

1. My wife’s choice in Chinese restaurants, given the two recent bouts of food poisoning I contracted.
2. My daughter’s addiction to Australian soap operas & 90210 atrophying her brain.
3. My teenage son’s on-going battle with a premature end to his life by being a teenage son.

Caffeine is a stimulant. Students the world over have spent two, caffeine-fuelled restless evenings trying to learn a year’s-worth of exam stuff as they paid no attention in class.

But then someone died.

Isn’t it amazing that the death of one person in the States can be a good reason to urge caution but the death of thousands in another part of the world barely raises a mumble about stopping the arms trade?

And then someone remembered another person has died.

The American Council on Science & Health report that “Logan Steiner had over twenty times the amount of caffeine in his blood than would be expected for a person who obtained their caffeine from coffee or cola.”

I know what you’re thinking: some of us have Goth friends who enjoy nothing more than lots of effeminate caffeine-based cocktails – should we organise an intervention for him? I can’t answer that, it’s a matter between you and how much you want to maintain your supply of Powwow Sauce.

The FDA point out that one spoon of caffeine powder is the equivalent to 25 cups of coffee but it’s Dr. Ruth Kava who raises the concept of personal responsibility: “This is just one more example of consumers’ ”” especially teens’ ”” ignorance of the basic truth that “the dose makes the poison” with respect to any and all drugs, supplements, chemicals, whatever.”

It’s easy to have a chuckle at the expense of someone clearly ignorant about battery chemistry, electricity and material conductivity but we are seeing a rise in the number of reported cases where lack of awareness has led to explosive consequences. What do we do about it?

There will be those who call for regulations, others will mention education, some will want to place more responsibility on the sellers of such items and a small group will sit in a dark corner and talk about Darwin Awards.

I have no idea on how to solve the problem of people causing their batteries to vent (usually near a poor quality video recording device). It would be interesting to discover if anyone is concerned about collating or has recorded the facts from these incidents. Whatever the solution might be I’d rather it was evidence-based rather than driven by media conjecture.