WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the death of Lorain County high school student Logan Stiner, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) met with his parents in Washington, D.C. to increase pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the sale of powdered caffeine. Logan Stiner – who was a senior at Keystone High School in LaGrange – died just three days before his high school graduation after ingesting too much powdered caffeine.

“One teaspoon of powdered caffeine is like drinking 25 cups of coffee,” Brown said. “And while the dangers are not broadly understood, powdered caffeine is widely available online or in stores with little warning or guidance. That must stop. That’s why I’m urging the FDA to ban the retail sale and marketing of powdered caffeine. While it’s too late to save Logan and Wade from this dangerous substance, we must act quickly before more lives are lost.”

The Stiner family joined the parents of Wade Sweatt – a 24-year-old Georgia resident who also died after ingesting caffeine powder – and advocates from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to deliver a citizen petition urging the FDA to ban the sale of powdered caffeine.

There have been at least two deaths from powdered caffeine. In Ohio alone, more than 200 people have been admitted to the hospital for caffeine overdoses, including five life-threatening cases. According to the FDA, a single teaspoon of pure caffeine is roughly equivalent to the amount in 25 cups of coffee – more than six times the recommended daily amount of caffeine for an adult. Although the FDA has alerted consumers to the dangers of powdered caffeine on its website, these products remain on the shelves and available online without any sort of regulation, warnings, or protections.

In October, Brown joined Stiner’s parents in calling on the FDA to ban the sale of this lethal substance. Brown and Blumenthal sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on October 23.

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