Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
This is a person who already has medical issues that put him at risk of his exact cause of death, and he knowingly endangers his own life by consuming substances - in excess - which would endanger him further. While I understand and am sympathetic to his disabilities, what I don’t understand is how Panera Bread is legally responsible for this person’s death.
Should Panera Bread put a warning label on its charged lemonade? Apparently, it’s necessary. Should they consider lowering the dose of caffeine? Possibly. But if a person in precarious physical health due to having high blood pressure - one who know not to consume highly-caffeinated beverages - does so anyway, and in excess, to the point that it causes a heart attack, I simply cannot see how the one who sold them the caffeinated drink are to blame.
A large cup is 390mg of caffeine brother… no labels, and sometimes is right next to the normal lemonade.
270mg is the norm in a potent energy drink.
A single cup of that shit would throw you into palpitations and panic, no doubt.
Want to take a guess at how much caffeine is in a large coffee?
~270mg is the usual.
As a certified grad student loser, I would totally know. Adding a shot of espresso is around 65mg of caffeine per shot.
Most I’ve done is an americano with 4 extra shots of espresso. This is reserved for being an idiot and needing a way to maximize sleep schedules.
The difference is that the normal people know that 30 oz of coffee is too much coffee, and that 30 oz of lemonade is a normal amount of lemonade
Yeah if those energy drinks require a warning label (and they usually have one, see pic), the lemonade should probably also come with one.
There’s labels everywhere at Panera. In person and on their website.
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/b510c87d-d4cb-45e5-8f4a-47acac526a4c.jpeg
That photo clearly shows the mg of caffeine per size of drink. What more labeling do you want?
I’m dumbfounded that they’re allowed to sell those drinks in Canada. If it’s an energy drink from a store, there is a set limit of up to 180mg per container. (200mg for the little energy shot bottles.) We recall these things all the damn time for not having enough/adequate labelling.
Apparently though, caffeine can just magically tell if it comes from a restaurant or from a can, and it decides to be less harmful if you get it from doordash instead of from a convenience store. /s
Can anyone tell me how this makes sense? They cared enough to add new caffeine mandates and limits back in August of this year, but the buck apparently stops when it’s a chain restaurant in question. Thanks, I hate it.
If you’re curious about this sort of thing, look up “eggshell plaintiff” - a widely accepted legal precedent addressing your argument https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull
“Knowingly” is a stretch. These self serve dispensers do not make the caffeine content obvious unless you’re desperately trying to defend Panera and already know that they have caffeine