A little like the flavoured cigarillos, advertising of a product doesn't have to be-directly aimed at kids for it still to appeal to them.
Health professionals are expressing growing concern about the menu of so called energy drinks, highly caffeinated beverages, and how they are popular among some of the young crowd. The Canadian Medical Association Journal described them as "tasty syrups' in an editorial released Monday.
The writers of the opinion article say Health Canada should require producers to use clearer labeling and should bar promotion targeting the child-and-teen market. It's not always a clear, cut-and-dried issue, though.
Sale of tobacco to minors is, at least technically, illegal. The federal government targeted the flavoured product because of the belief they were being plugged by big tobacco as a gateway to their addictive product.
With the energy drinks, the industry says it is doing no such thing. A spokesman for Refreshments Canada, an umbrella organization representing beverage producers, said the big companies do not in any way direct their advertising toward young people. Still, with such names as Rock Star, you have to wonder.
It's certainly not the killer tobacco is, but the Canadian Medical Association says excess caffeine can cause nervousness, irritability, rapid heart rate and sleeplessness, which itself can cause a domino effect of problems in kids.
Health Canada suggests kids aged 10 to 12 shouldn't consume more than 85
milIigrams of caffeine a day, the equivalent of about a can or two of cola. The editorial notes that some energy drinks contain 10 times the caffeine found in cola.
Clear label warnings and recommendations that they not be used by children – called for by the association – make sense. But the doctors also want better
information for parents about such products. And clearly, just like any dietary issues involving children, parents should educate themselves about what their kids are consuming.
