Attorney General, Grieving Parents Call For NoDoz Warning

WALLINGFORD — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a drug manufacturer to strengthen warning labels on NoDoz, a popular over-the-counter caffeine pill.

In letters to the FDA and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc, a Massachusetts company that manufactures NoDoz, Mr Blumenthal said the recent tragic death of a 19-year-old Connecticut boy is terrible and stark evidence that warning labels on NoDoz and other pill form caffeine products are inadequate.

The Attorney General urged stronger warning labels about the possibly severe health consequences of overdosing and caffeine toxicity. He also advised increasing the recommended age of NoDoz use from 12 to 18 — strongly discouraging use by children of the pill form of such stimulants.

“Children lack the maturity and reason to safely regulate the ingestion of caffeine,” Mr Blumenthal said in a statement May 1. “I hope that Novartis — as a market leader in the supply of perhaps the most widely recognized brand of caffeine pill — will provide these sensible and enhanced warnings to its customers against inappropriate and dangerous use of its product.

“Beverage companies have increasingly targeted youth with energy drinks — a massive marketing movement that has popularized caffeine binging, especially for children. This pervasive push should send a wakeup call to regulators about the significant health risks of caffeine overuse,” he added.

The parents of the 19-year-old Wallingford resident whose death last November was linked to taking nearly two dozen NoDoz caffeine tablets recently made a public appeal to have better warning labels placed on the product or to have it sold as a prescription medicine.

The New Haven Register reported in early April that James Stone died November 27, 2006, of a heart attack brought on by what the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner termed “caffeine toxicity.” Mr Stone’s parents, Diane and James Stone Sr, say they want to warn the public that an overdose of caffeine can carry serious consequences.

“I don’t want any other parent to go through what my wife and I have been through,” Mr Stone. said in the report. “It does not say on the bottle that it will kill you. It says right on the box that it’s like a cup of coffee.”