The death of an 18-year-old boy in Ohio last week was something of a mystery to those investigating it until they tested a white powder at his house.

The white powder that killed him wasn’t cocaine — it was caffeine.

The boy, who died suddenly at home a week before his high school graduation, was found with more than 70 micrograms of caffeine per millilitre of blood in his system.

For comparison, a typical coffee drinker would have three to five micrograms, the coroner told the Associated Press.

The lethal proportion of caffeine caused the otherwise healthy teen to have a cardiac arrhythmia and a seizure.

Caffeine consumption is so normalized in our society that it’s likely slipped the mind of many that it is, in fact, a stimulant. Caffeine is a drug, and we can overdose on it.

Caffeine powder is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., so there’s no guarantee that different brands of the powder have the same concentration of caffeine.

A can of soda has about 200 milligrams of caffeine in it, according to FDA. That same caffeine dose is contained in one-sixteenth of a teaspoon of caffeine powder.

Simply put, if it’s not measured very carefully, caffeine powder can have devastating consequences.

The teen could have had as little as a teaspoon of the powder that caused his death, Reuters reports.

Caffeine powder is peddled as a health product, and is sometimes used in pre-workout drinks for an energy boost, kind of like how protein powder is used after a workout.

The theory behind bodybuilders taking this diuretic is it kind of boosts muscles’ metabolic rates, if you will, causing muscles to use more calcium, which builds them up faster and accelerates fat loss.

The powdered stuff is readily available for purchase over the Internet, but unlike protein powder, if you are a little sloppy with your measuring or don’t follow the instructions to the letter, you are likely to suffer far more serious consequences.

Health Canada regulates caffeine as a food additive. In 2011, the regulating body changed energy drinks from the natural health product designation to a regular food product, meaning they have to be labelled and are subject to regulations other food products are. Those regulations are enforced through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Health Canada says moderate daily caffeine intake at dose levels of 400 milligrams per day is not associated with any adverse effects.
Some people naturally have an adverse reaction to caffeine consumption, reporting insomnia, irritability and headaches.

If you’re a regular coffee drinker like me, you may get a headache and have difficulty concentrating if you go a day without a cup of joe.

That dependence is mild and does not have the same social, economic or health impact as addiction to other drugs, such as narcotics.

But like use of other, more dangerous stimulants, there is such thing as too much caffeine.

In 2010, a 23-year-old British man died after ingesting two spoonfuls of caffeine powder and washing them down with an energy drink. The caffeine content in the powder alone was equivalent to that of about 70 cans of Red Bull.

All told, caffeine overdoses (especially those resulting in death) are not exactly common; far more people overdose on Tylenol than on caffeine.

But hopefully a little bit of awareness around the dangers of caffeine over-consumption can help prevent these kinds of deaths from becoming more prevalent as our society continues its shift toward consumption of these kinds of drink additives for “health purposes.”