The Atlantic – Sara Talpos and Undark
Earlier this year, a half-dozen students from City Hill Middle School, in Naugatuck, Connecticut, traveled with their science teacher, Katrina Spina, to the state capital to testify in support of a bill that would ban sales of energy drinks to children under the age of 16. Having devoted three months to a chemistry unit studying the ingredients in and potential health impacts of common energy drinks—with brand names like Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Rockstar—the students came to a sobering conclusion: “Energy drinks can be fatal to everyone, but especially to adolescents,” a seventh-grader, Luke Deitelbaum, told state legislators. “Even though this is true, most energy-drink companies continue to market these drinks specifically toward teens.”