Caffeine as a Public Health Concern

Data and Statistics: Understanding Caffeine as a Public Health Concern

Generally, doses of caffeine below four hundred milligrams a day is considered safe for healthy adults (Lušić et al., 2024). A sublethal dose of caffeine is about seven to ten milligrams per about 2 pounds (Lušić et al., 2024). Caffeine use and abuse has spread more widely as caffeine-related products, or products that have some form of caffeine in them, have become more readily available in grocery stores, gas stations, and restaurants (Cappelletti et al., 2018; Lipshultz et al., 2025). There are a couple of factors that play a role in caffeine intoxication and death, such as interactions with other substances to affect blood levels, pre-existing diseases or conditions, and an individual’s sensibility to caffeine (Cappelletti et al., 2018). Often, when someone is experiencing an adverse reaction to caffeine, it is the result of them performing a very stimulating and demanding activity on their heart with the amount of caffeine in their body, such as athletes. College students tend to be more at risk as well, because of the high stress of academic related environments and juggling multiple roles and responsibilities at the same time (AlAteeq et al., 2021).

Some common forms of caffeine can come from caffeinated coffee, which various from regular brewed coffee to speciality drinks, decaffeinated coffee (which typically still has some amount of caffeine in it), different kinds of teas, carbonated soft drinks, and energy drinks of different brands (which widely vary in caffeine amount) (AlAteeq et al., 2021; Lipshultz et al., 2025). Most reports for caffeine related incidences or injuries come from CAERS (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Adverse Event Reporting System) and the NPDS (National Poison Data System); CAERS collects reports relating to the Food Drug Administration's regulated products, which encompasses caffeine drinks, and the NPDS tracks calls to poison control, which can include those relating to energy drinks (Markon et al., 2019). The two reporting systems differ a bit from the demographic breakdown for individuals experiencing these events, CAERS median age was thirty-one years, while NPDS was around thirteen years (Markon et al., 2019). However, they both have an estimate of sixty percent of affected individuals being male, and this specific data has reports from thirty seven of the fifty states from years 2008 to 2015 (Markon et al., 2019). Depicted below is a chart of the United States, showing calls to the NPDS per each state in the years 2008-2015, when the Markon et al. article is encompassing.

Common adverse events for these situations end up being hospitalizations, life-threatening events, and “[a]mong the single product cases, thirty-five deaths were reported” (Markon et al., 2019). Some of the most deadly or dangerous events happen from children who are five years or younger, often being an unintended exposure (Lipshultz et al., 2025). The economic cost comes from money and resources needed to respond to these often cardiac events occurring, along with the cost of caffeine-related products being unregulated on the market (Abdoli et al., 2024). Often, high or dangerous levels of caffeine use and abuse is correlated with other situations, or seen almost as a comorbidity. Life-threatening events often result from a cardiac event, with the individual already being predisposed to experience it because of being high-risk to such things (Lušić et al., 2024). Along with that, high levels of caffeine consumption often correlates with mental health related issues, episodes, or disorders in individuals who abuse the substance, which could indicate some loss of productivity in society (Abdoli et al., 2024; Cappelletti et al., 2021). There are even some reports of caffeine abused relating to caffeine-induced suicide, where someone purposefully takes too much caffeine to overdose on the substance (Abdoli et al., 2024; Cappelletti et al., 2021). Some argue that fatal caffeine intoxications and levels in adults often is from an intentional drug overdose, while for children it is usually an unintentional ingestion that is not responded to properly (Lušić et al., 2024).