"Just saying that there isn't a complaint doesn't mean there isn't a problem," said Utah County Health Department spokesman Lance Madigan.

The health department has formulated a presentation detailing the potential risks of energy drinks, with or without alcohol. Employees have given the presentation to various groups throughout the state, and requests for other presentations are pouring in.

But for a real change to be made, Bird said, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will need to step in and increase the labeling requirements on manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks.

Many such products have packaging similar to traditional energy drinks at first glance and are marked as alcohol by phrases on the label such as "malt beverage" and "alc/wt," which Bird said only about half of those surveyed by the health department recognized as an alcoholic beverage.

An attempt to reach an alcoholic energy drink manufacturer was not immediately successful.

Traditional energy drinks, which use ingredients such as ginkgo and ginseng that that are not regulated by the U.S. government, also need a closer look from the FDA, Bird said.

"An environment is being created where the consumer knows little about the product," he said. " ... A lot of these particular ingredients are from Eastern medicine. There are some claims around them that have not been validated."

Like Utah County health officials, there are others who are raising red flags about the ingredients in energy drinks. Last fall, researchers at the University of Maryland petitioned the FDA to make a close evaluation of energy drinks.

The Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland is in the midst of a five-year study called the College Life Survey. It is a comprehensive, five-year lifestyle study of 1,200 college students that is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Questions about energy drink abuse were added a year and a half ago at the suggestion of student interviewers.

"The more and more I looked at it, the more I thought, 'Wow, this is going under the radar of people in the substance-abuse field,"' said Amelia Arria, deputy director of research at CESAR. "I'm not assuming there are negative effects (from energy drinks), but because of their prevalence, I'm thinking we need more research."

The FDA is still mulling the request, Arria said.

---

E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com