New rules on energy drinks
In Romania, selling energy drinks to underage customers will be banned
Corina Cristea, 21.02.2024, 13:50
A draft law that bans selling energy drinks to minors, in order to prevent and fight the effects of such products on people’s health, was endorsed on Monday by the Chamber of Deputies with 238 votes in favour, one vote against and 12 abstentions.
This initiative was delayed in the Senate for longer than we had intended, said the Social Democrat Alfred Simonis, the interim Chamber Speaker and the author of the bill, according to whom “at the moment we have serious indications, research and discussions that we had with parent associations, teachers, NGOs concerned with this topic, which tell us that there are a lot of energy drinks that are used by children ‘by the gallon’, in and out of school, which is not beneficial to their health.”
Alfred Simonis: “It hasn’t been easy for us to win this battle against a highly profitable and very rich industry. And I promise that next week we will also endorse a bill banning the sale of electronic cigarettes to children, and I can assure you that in the forthcoming period, as soon as possible, we will also ban slot machines, in big cities, in towns and in the countryside.”
The new legislation prohibits the sale of energy drinks containing various combinations of carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals with at least two stimulant compounds such as caffeine, taurine, carnitine, guarana and others within the premises of education institutions, healthcare units or of care centres for underprivileged people.
Using such products has even lead to deaths among underage people, MP Diana Stoica (Save Romania Union) emphasised:
Diana Stoica: “The National Public Health Institute has presented us with extensive research. Adverse effects include sleep disorders, anxiety, increased blood pressure, facilitation of diabetes and even sudden death.”
The short and long-term effects of energy drinks are extremely harmful for what we call harmonic development and functional development, prof. Mihaela Bălgrădean, Ph.D., with the “Marie Curie” Emergency Children’s Hospital, told Radio Romania:
Mihaela Bălgrădean: “The body responds immediately to the ingestion of a substance, it forms or develops a type of metabolism that will later on impede the normal development of the body. These energy drinks that we are discussing today only damage the normal operation of the body.”
The bill introduces fines of up to EUR 6,000 for the businesses that violate the provisions, with repeat offenders set to have their operations temporarily suspended. (AMP)
