The Food and Drug Administration plans to review a new product to determine if it is safe for consumers, and to determine if it can be considered as a dietary supplement.
Why didn’t someone think of this sooner?
David Edwards, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard, created AeroShot, which went on the market in January in Massachusetts and New York. AeroShot comes in a yellow and gray plastic canister, and to consume it you simply put an end of the canister in your mouth and breathe. The canister is filled with 100 milligrams of dissolvable caffeine powder, which is similar to a large cup of coffee.
According to David Edwards, the product is safe and doesn’t use additives generally used in energy drinks. Because AeroShot was sold as a dietary supplement, the FDA did not have to review it. However, New York Sen. Charles Schumer is getting FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to look at the product’s safety because he is worried about how it will affect kids and teens. Especially because they are “vulnerable to overusing a product” when it’s possible to take “hit after hit.”
According to the company that makes AeroShot, if used correctly, it gives the consumer a safe amount of caffeine.
They claim that the product is not recommended for people under the age of 18 and that the product is not marketed towards children. AeroShot sells for $2.99 a canister and on the label it recommends users to take no more than three doses a day.
Schumer, who tried to get the FDA to review AeroShot in December, is scared that it will be used as a “club drug,” and people will use it “until they drop.” Schumer is scared that inhalable caffeine will become the next Four Loko, which were caffeine-filled alcohol drinks known as “blackout in a can.”
Inhalable caffeine is a great idea. It is fast and easy and would give people the energy they need without having to wait in a line at Starbucks, or make a cup at home. For students, this product could be a miracle worker. When cramming for exams or pulling all-nighters, a simple breath of caffeine would help get the job done. Everybody could also use an extra shot of energy, so why not use inhalable caffeine that is apparently safe.
While it’s probably one of best inventions ever, inhalable caffeine probably won’t last long because it will be abused. With something that is that easy to take, people won’t know when to stop, and when mixed with alcohol it is a disaster waiting to happen. There is no doubt that if the product is sold nationally, it will be abused. It will become another Four Loko incident, and most likely be banned because people will use it “until they drop.”
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