1. Alcoholic Energy Drinks -- AG Support, An Expert Opinion
2. One Step Forward, One Step Back in Youth Marketing
3. Action Alert: Tell Congress to Oppose Industry Bills to Slash Beer Taxes

Alcoholic Energy Drinks -- AG Support, An Expert Opinion

Last week, 30 attorneys general took a powerful stand against alcoholic energy drinks. In their letter to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the AGs expressed grave concern about how the products are targeting youth, and called upon the agency to enforce federal law that says companies cannot market these beverages as “energy-enhancing.” View Media

The AGs statement echoed a report released by Marin Institute earlier this month that warned about the dangers of alcoholic energy drinks and the ways they are bring marketed to young people. Download report

An Interview with Mary O'Brien, MD

Recently, we spoke with Mary O’Brien, MD, a professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine who has new data on the effect of combining alcohol and energy drinks on college-aged drinkers. Here’s what she told us.

MI: What prompted you to undertake this research?

MO: A few years ago I took care of a college student in the emergency department who was profoundly intoxicated, who -- when he awoke many hours later -- told me he had been drinking Red Bull and vodka all night. I had no idea this was so popular. My fellow researchers and I decided to incorporate a few questions on mixing energy drinks with alcohol into the survey that we give annually to more than 4,000 college students at 10 universities in North Carolina, as part of a randomized clinical trial that uses an environmental approach (campus-community coalitions) to reduce alcohol-related consequences.

In November, we will present the full results of this particular inquiry at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, in Washington DC. [In the meantime], I can summarize a few of the findings.

MO: Overall, 16% of college students mix energy drinks with alcohol, which means 24% of students who drink alcohol are mixing energy drinks with alcohol, or about 1 in 4.

Also, the risk of alcohol-related consequences goes up when students mix energy drinks with alcohol, and not just because students drink more and drink longer when they add energy drinks, which they do.

There is also an increased risk of alcohol-related consequences independent of the quantity and frequency of alcohol, a synergistic effect of energy drinks and alcohol. In other words, even when you adjust for the amount of alcohol a student has ingested, those who mix alcohol and energy drinks are still at increased risk.

MI: Are any of these young drinkers aware of the role the alcohol industry plays in terms of specifically targeting them as consumers, both in its product development and its marketing?

MO: I don't know if kids know about how the alcohol industry is actively targeting them. From the perspective of industry, it's just effective marketing. I have no problem with marketing until it exposes people to more health risk. Then I have a big problem, especially because the health risks have not been publicized.

MI: What do you hope to achieve by presenting this to data at APHA?

MO: I'd like the APHA presentation to serve as a wake-up call. I'd like the federal government to immediately ban all alcoholic energy drinks and the adding of caffeine to all alcoholic beverages, to issue a strong warning statement on the potential health effects, and to require labeling on all energy drinks that warns about the serious health risks of mixing with alcohol.

In Austria, where Red Bull originated and is manufactured, all cans are required to have a warning label telling consumers not to mix alcohol with the drink. Italy, Australia, and New Zealand all require warnings. Sweden, Ireland, and others have issues national statements. What is the United States waiting for?

Editor’s note: If you know of anyone who has suffered from health or safety consequences of drinking alcohol combined with energy drinks, or from pre-mixed products, we would like to hear from you. Please email Marin Institute’s research and policy director, Michele Simon.

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One Step Forward, One Step Back in Youth Marketing

The most recent findings from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) suggest that higher standards around marketing to youth can yield promising results.

From 2001 to 2005, CAMY found that youth exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines fell by 49%. The study looked at 16,635 advertisements and found that the largest year-to-year drop occurred between 2004 and 2005, or right after the 2003 alcohol industry trade associations adopted a more restrictive standard for advertising placements. In that one year youth exposure fell by more than a quarter.

But the news is not all good. During this same period, CAMY noted, youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television increased by 41%, so that combined youth exposure to alcohol advertising in these two media changed very little between 2001 and 2005.

Source:
It Can Be Done: Reductions in Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising in Magazines, 2001-2005

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Action Alert: Tell Congress to Oppose Industry Bills to Slash Beer Taxes

Big Beer is at it again, pushing self-serving bills (H.R. 1610 / S. 1995) to enrich its bottom line by trying to slash the federal excise tax on beer by 50%, to its 1951 level! Please urge your legislators to stand up to the beer lobby by opposing these bills. Ask them instead to pass a long overdue increase in alcohol taxes to provide funds to help clean up the mess of alcohol problems.

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