Hansard

I echo what Brian Whittle said, and I start by thanking Graeme Dey for securing a debate on a very important subject that we must take a serious look at. As Brian Whittle said, it is not just a case of a ban being solution in itself: we must also consider the wider environment around our schools. I completely agree with his arguments.

The debate is timely. I decided that I wanted to participate after listening to an interview on Radio 2 last week with Jan Halper-Hayes, whose son Matthew died aged only 19 after consuming a considerable volume of energy drinks mixed with alcohol. The drinks are believed to have caused a blood clot in the arteries of his lungs, which killed him instantly. I know that that is not directly related to the motion today, but it is because of the dangers that energy drinks pose and the effects that they have—particularly on young people—that I whole-heartedly support Graeme Dey’s motion and welcome the actions that have been taken so far by the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and by major supermarkets. I encourage all retailers to ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.

According to research from 2016, the United Kingdom has the second-highest consumption per head of energy drinks in the world. It is second only to Austria, which is the home of Red Bull. Sales of energy drinks in the UK increased by 155 per cent between 2006 and 2014.

A number of studies have been undertaken to assess the impact of energy drinks on young people. One in particular, by Huhtinen et al in 2013, looked at data from more than 10,000 adolescents in Finland. It found that daily consumption of energy drinks was strongly associated with four caffeine-induced health complaints—headaches, sleeping problems, irritation, and tiredness and fatigue. A similar study in Iceland of more than 11,000 children aged between 10 and 12 found that instances of headaches, stomach pains and sleeping problems generally increased where reported consumption of energy drinks increased.

The symptoms that are caused by energy drinks have for quite some time now been clear to see for people who work in our schools. Forfar academy in my constituency was the first school in Angus—and one of the first in the country—to ban energy drinks in school grounds. That was instigated in 2016 by former headteacher Melvyn Lynch, who wrote to the parents stating:

“It is our opinion that these drinks are a danger to the health of our young people and that they contain no nutritional benefits. In additional to these health risks, we are also extremely concerned about the effect these drinks are having on the behaviour of our young people. They can cause conflict with staff when pupils are advised that they should not be consuming these drinks in classes. We have also had occasions where pupils who have consumed energy drinks have been involved in more serious incidents that have led to exclusion. Whilst energy drinks are not solely to blame for this indiscipline, we believe that they are a contributory factor.”

That view has since been shared and implemented more widely by all schools in Angus and by other schools across Scotland that do not allow energy drinks in school grounds, as well as by small and large retailers alike.

Although all those issues are bad enough in and of themselves, there are also a number of serious health risks associated with excessively high caffeine consumption, including palpitations, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, metabolic acidosis, convulsions and even—in rare cases—death. A study that was published in Journal of the American Heart Association found in a controlled trial that energy drinks can cause potentially harmful changes to heart function and blood pressure.

Those are the dangers that are associated with the caffeine content alone of those drinks, before we consider the added impact of high sugar levels or of combining the drinks with physical activity or alcohol, such as in the tragic case of Matthew Halper-Hayes, whom I mentioned earlier.

The effects of energy drink consumption simply cannot be ignored. One of the UK’s largest teaching unions has described energy drinks as “readily available legal highs”. We have seen the devastating impact that legal highs have on people’s lives; we have acted on that, and we have to do something about energy drinks. We need to act now to prevent the immediate impacts of energy drinks on our young people and others who consume them regularly in excessive amounts, and to prevent what could be a serious public health problem further down the line. I am happy to support Graeme Dey’s motion.