This moron took two tea spoons of anydrous USP grade caffeine powder, the equivalent of more than 70 shots of espresso at once and died. This idiot had no idea of the amount of caffeine he was taking. He forgot that this was USP grade caffeine, meaning that there were no excipients in the powder. It was caffeine at the least 99.9% pure(which is the minimum for it to be regarded as USP). A dose of caffeine of as little as one gram can cause a cardiac arrest in those susceptible. A single teaspoon has over 5 grams! To give you an idea what this dose of caffeine is, take into consideration that a can of soda has about 45 miligrams of caffeine. So swallowing two tea spoons of anhydrous USP grade caffeine is the equivalent of ingesting the amount of caffeine of 220 cans of soda at once!
Caffeine is a very toxic substance. People don't understand just how little caffeine it takes to cause the stimulant properties it has. The desirable effects of caffeine, such as increased mental alertness, caused by inhibbition of adenosine receptors in the brain, and increased elation and pleasure-seeking, caused by the release of dopamine in the pre-frontal cortex and to a lesser extent the the nucleus accumbens, increases to doses of no more than about 100 miligrams. That is a dose equivalent to a grain of sand. The undesirable effects of caffeine start with doses as low as 200 miligrams. In high doses(200+ miligrams), caffeine results in excessive stimulation of the sympathetic nervous sytem, resulting in restleness, tachycardia and anxiety. In extremely high doses(1,000+ miligrams), caffeine also stimulates the parasympathomimetic nervous system, resulting in brachycardia, sudoresis, meiosis and salivation. In fact, the effects of these extremely high doses of caffeine are undistinguishible from those of organophosphate poisons used in agriculture to kill pests.
Now because of this imbecile, are you guys willing to bet that politicians will try to use this to ban coffee, caffeine powder and soda?
http://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=caffeine%20powder%20deaths&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-1324722%2FParty-goer-killed-2-spoonfuls-caffeine-powder--equivalent-70-Red-Bulls.html&ei=qNCjTqSJHNGbtwfHmfymBQ&usg=AFQjCNFF-cDuB9Dvt_WgUkvoyxOyV4dT1w
