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Phusion Projects’ Four Loko malt beverage has been thrust into the center of a national controversy about the risks of consuming caffeinated alcoholic beverages. But the drinks, and the health concerns are nothing new.
The Center for Disease Control’s current alcohol and public health fact sheet cites studies going back to 2004 that conclude the caffeine in these drinks can mask the depressant effects of alcohol.
“This isn’t a new or novel idea,” said Phusion co-founder and managing partner Chris Hunter.
Hunter and two college friends from Ohio State University created their company in 2005 after noticing the popularity of mixing alcohol and energy drinks, such as vodka and Red Bull.
“Things like Irish coffees or rum and Coke, that is alcohol and caffeine,” Hunter said. “They’ve been consumed safely for years.”
But health educators like Leslie Haxby McNeill in Miami University’s Office of Student Wellness, are worried that the sweet taste and marketing toward young people are attracting inexperienced drinkers.
“There are some students who just don’t realize its potency,” she said.
The CDC’s website quotes one 2010 study that found drinkers who consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks are three times more likely to binge drink than those consuming alcohol alone. In 2008 another national study found that mixing alcohol with energy drinks increased a person’s chances of being sexually assaulted, sexually assaulting someone else and getting in a car with an impaired driver.
Haxby McNeill said she’s noticed an increase in student code violations and police incidents where Four Loko was involved.
Although Ohio was one of 11 states whose Attorneys General previously petitioned MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch to stop making alcohol-caffeine combinations, there haven’t yet been moves to ban Four Loko here in its home state.
Hunter said the issue is one of consumer education.
“We don’t encourage anyone to abuse or misuse alcohol,” he said, and points out that the amount of alcohol in Four Loko is comparable to a typical bottle of wine.
Although the drink is most popular among young adults and college students, Hunter said it isn’t purposely marketed that way.
“We really don’t do much outside marketing. We don’t market on social media sites like Facebook,” he said. He also said the company is ahead of the curve as far as labelling, with seven warnings on each can alerting consumers to the alcohol content.
Reginald Fennell, professor of health education at Miami University and an editor for the Journal of American College Health, has been educating students on the health risks associated with energy drinks via the MU Mobile Health Unit since February. He said an alcohol-caffeine drink section could be added in the future.
Bill Fischer, UD’s interim vice president for student development and dean of students, said in a written statement that the university “is aware of national trends on college campuses that can affect students, including the use of the new alcohol/caffeine combination products.” He said the university is building information about these new products into their existing educational programming to try and reduce high-risk behavior.
“The majority of college students are making healthy decisions,” Fennell said. “What we’re trying to do is to inform them so they can continue to do that.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2124 or kwedell@coxohio.com.
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