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Tag: Teen Health

  • Monster Drinks Investigated For Targeting Children

    Monster Beverage Corp. is coming under attack in an investigation by a New York state attorney general and a San Francisco city attorney general.

    Amidst all the death reports cause by energy drinks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that there is no solid evidence that the beverages have caused them.

    Yet in October, WebMD reported that a Maryland couple filed a lawsuit against Monster in the death of their 14-year-old daughter who drank two cans within one day from each other but then collapsed and was placed into an induced coma.

    Doctors declared that her heart had stopped following the consumption of the second 24-ounce drink.

    According to health experts, caffeinated Monster drinks contain on average 240 mg, but the daily recommended caffeine-intake for minors is 100 mg.

    The parents’ lawsuit claimed that the product’s ingredients are dangerous and shouldn’t be marketed towards young children and/or teenagers.

    Some have accused the company for not being completely transparent about the ingredients and even then the possible health risks the drink may expose to its consumers.

    It looks like other lawmakers couldn’t agree more.

    San Francisco attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit on the basis that Monster is intentionally marketing their products to minors.

    Monster responded to the lawsuit with their on lawsuit requesting to stop the investigation, but a California judge threw out the corporation’s case.

    However, the California-based company isn’t the only energy drink coming under scrutiny.

    New York attorney General Eric Schneiderman is also attacking the company along with others for marketing their products to children.

    The FDA doesn’t see the drink as a problem per se, but views the high concentration of caffeine as the reason for major health concerns.

    “FDA continues to evaluate the emerging science on a variety of ingredients, including caffeine,” a spokeswoman for the agency previously told WebMD.

    Monster Beverage Corp. has yet to make a statement on the investigations.

    UPDATE 1/15/13 2:06 p.m. 

    Here is a statement sent in by Monster Beverage’s PR:

    “The sale and consumption of more than 10 billion Monster energy drinks worldwide over more than 11 years has shown that our products are safe.  Contrary to allegations, they are not “highly caffeinated” and they are not marketed to children. In fact, a 16-ounce Monster Energy drink contains less than half the caffeine of a 16-oz (medium) size cup of Starbucks brewed coffee.  Monster’s labels state: “Consume responsibly:  Not recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant women or women who are nursing.” “

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • UCLA Turns To Social Media To Improve Teen Health

    With the average teen spending nine hours a week on social networking sites, the UCLA School of Public Health has partnered with Health Net of California to develop a health literacy program using social media in an effort to encourage teens from 13 to 17 to take better care of their health.

    Michael-Prelip "Over 90 percent of teens today use social networking sites, not just to interact with their peers but also to get information about issues that are important to them," said Michael Prelip, a professor of community health sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health and one of the principal investigators of the project.

    "This intervention will provide important clues about the effectiveness of social media in influencing adolescents’ understanding of their health care rights, responsibilities and benefits so that they can become good health care consumers."

    The two-year project, funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, will use a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of two different interventions – a Web-based social media intervention and a "usual care" intervention – to improve preventive care and decrease emergency room visits among adolescents.

    "One of our chief goals is establishing best practices for encouraging teens to use their insurance and the health care system so they can become knowledgeable health care consumers as they transition into adulthood," said Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, Health Net’s director of health education and cultural and linguistic services and one of the study’s collaborators.

    The study will look at the impact of various traditional and newer social media usage patterns regarding health literacy and preventive health practices.