Students in university trial nearly killed by huge caffeine dose
TWO students nearly died after drinking caffeine equivalent to 300 cups of coffee for a university experiment.
Alex Rossetto and Luke Parkin each ingested about two times a potentially fatal dose of the stimulant in one go during a practical exercise because of a calculation error, a court heard yesterday.
The judge said that the sports science students had survived the massive overdoses only because they had both been in peak physical condition.
The two second-year undergraduates, both 20 at the time of the experiment in March 2015, suffered immediate ‘violent’ side effects including dizziness, shaking and vomiting, after consuming 100 times the amount of caffeine they were supposed to take.
THey were taken to hospital and had to spend days in intensive care undergoing dialysis. Mr Rossetto lost 26.5lb while Mr Parkin lost 22lb.
Northumbria University in Newcastle was yesterday fined £400,000 over the incident.
Adam Farrer, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court that a doctor had confirmed both students were in a ‘potentially lifethreatening condition’ as a result of the mistake at the university’s faculty of health and life sciences.
He said: ‘If they had not been admitted to intensive care immediately for treatment they could have died from caffeine overdose.’
The students have both been able to continue with their studies, but they suffered months of side effects from the caffeine intake.
Northumbria University, which did not have a proper risk assessment for the experiment in place, admitted that it had breached health and safety legislation.
The court heard that the university had previously used caffeine tablets for the experiment, which is called The Wingate Test, but for the past few years had switched to pure caffeine in powder form.
During the experiment, caffeine was mixed into a solution of water and orange juice to test its effects during exercise.
But, because of a calculation error and a misplaced decimal point, Mr Rossetto was given 30.7g of caffeine and Mr Parkin was given 32g of the stimulant – 100 times the amount they should have had.
This was double the potentially fatal dose, and 300 times the amount found in an average cup of coffee, which contains around 0.1g of caffeine.
Mr Farrer said: ‘It was 100 times the dosage they should have been given. They suffered violent side effects within minutes of drinking it. There was dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shaking and rapid heartbeat.
‘No one, including the lab technicians or senior lecturer, checked to ensure the dosage had been correctly calculated.’
The court heard the lecturer had spoken about the dangers of caffeine overdose during an earlier class that morning. Handing down the sentence, Judge Edward Bindloss said: ‘It was known excess caffeine was potentially fatal, it should have had high priority, risk assessments should have been carried out and appropriate checks put into place and appropriate training given.’
The judge said that he was satisfied Northumbria University had taken the incident ‘very seriously’ and had fully co-operated with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation and prosecution. Mr Parkin said yesterday: ‘I am pleased the HSE have investigated this issue and created an awareness of the risk involved with such experiments.’
Peter Smith, defending, told the court: ‘All those involved are deeply sorry and genuinely sorry for the breach in this case.’
Both men were members of the class doing the experiment and volunteered to act as ‘guinea pigs’.
As well as its £400,000 fine, Northumbria University was ordered to pay £26,468 costs.