Dangerous drinks

A New Zealand woman died after many years of consuming 4.5-8 litres of Coke per day. I wasn't going to touch this story, but now the woman's family is calling for warning labels on soft drinks and the ever-eager Doug Sellman's using it as a hook for excise taxes on soft drinks.

If you're drinking that much of anything per day, you're likely going to kill yourself. At least the Stuff story, unlike the Radio New Zealand one, is pretty clear on that point.

Drinking up to eight litres of any liquid a day can kill you, regardless of how much sugar or caffeine it contains, a Wellington dietician says.

Foodsavvy's Sarah Elliott said that when "extreme" amounts of fluid were consumed regularly, the body's cells could rupture.

"Ten litres of fluid a day could kill you, no matter what it is."

Specialists recommend that humans do not drink more than four litres of liquid a day.

Water has an LD50 of 90ml/kg, at least in rats. If that LD50 applies to people, drinking 4.5 litres of water in a go would kill half of all people weighing 50 kilograms. I have no clue what this woman weighed, but drinking 8 litres of water would kill half of all people weighing 89 kilos at that LD50, and the Radio NZ piece said she sometimes drank up to 10 litres of Coke in a day.

Here's Sellman:

National Addiction Centre director Doug Sellman says companies are promoting fizzy drinks as harmless.
He says an excise tax needs to be introduced to soft drinks, to warn people that it could have health effects.

Drinking that much water would have health effects. Warning labels there too? How about plain packaging on drinking taps?