Joshua ZitserSat, March 5, 2022, 2:31 PM
- 29-year-old personal trainer died from a caffeine overdose in 2021, an inquest heard.
- Tom Mansfield got his “maths wrong” when measuring a dose of caffeine powder, the coroner said.
- He ingested up to 5g (0.2 oz) of caffeine powder, which is equivalent to up to 200 cups of coffee.
A personal trainer died from an overdose after accidentally ingesting a powder with caffeine levels equivalent to up to 200 cups of coffee, an inquest heard, per reports.
Tom Mansfield, 29, bought a 100g (3.5 oz) bag of caffeine powder from Blackburn Distributions, a British sports supplements company, according to BBC News.
The recommended dose of caffeine powder, which is often used by gymgoers to aid their performance, was between 60 300mg (0.002 and 0.01 oz).
But Mansfield’s digital scale had a starting weight of 2g (0.07 oz), and the product did not come with a measuring scoop, Yahoo! News reported.
The father-of-two from Colwyn Bay, Wales, miscalculated his measurement and scooped up to 5g (0.2 oz) of the powder, the inquest heard, per Yahoo! News.
Coroner John Gittins said Manfield had been aiming for the “mid-range of the recommended dose,” but “he got his maths wrong,” per BBC.
Mansfield took a sip of the mixture before downing the rest of the drink on January 5, 2021, the media outlet said.
The inquest heard that he began clutching his chest and complaining that his heart was beating fast, BBC News reported. Minutes later, the media outlet said, he started foaming at the mouth.
Paramedics arrived at his home and tried to resuscitate him for 45 minutes before pronouncing him dead at a hospital.
A post-mortem examination showed Mansfield had caffeine levels of 392mg per liter of blood, per BBC News. A typical coffee produces 2 to 4 mg per liter, meaning that he consumed the equivalent of up to 200 cups.
The cause of death was marked as caffeine toxicity.
According to North Wales Live, the coroner said that had Mansfield been provided with a scoop, he would likely still be alive today. Gittins said he had been “massively reassured” that Blackburn Distributions now provides a scoop with this brand of caffeine powder, the media outlet said.
