(NEXSTAR) – Poison control centers around the U.S. received approximately 24% more calls concerning kids and their consumption of energy drinks in 2023 than the year before, according to data from America’s Poison Centers.

More specifically, America’s Poison Centers (formerly the American Association of Poison Control Centers) said there were 2,694 calls to its centers “pediatric human exposures to energy drinks” in 2023 compared to 2,168 in 2022. The cases also hadn’t spiked like this in previous years, according to America’s Poison Centers (APC), which collected the data from the 55 poison centers it represents throughout the country.

“The 6–12-year-old age range had the largest proportional increase in exposures to energy drinks,” spiking 20% over the four-year period between 2020 and 2023, the APC added in an emailed statement obtained by Nexstar.

APC said the majority (78%) of the pediatric exposure calls in 2023 concerned kids and teens who had inadvertently consumed too much caffeine via an energy drink, rather than knowingly consuming the........

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