Quinine Lawyers

Quinine - Why is it OK in Europe?

As we've seen the development of the story that is quinine and its inherent dangers when being used for purposes other than treating malaria, we've also noticed that, at least in our opinion, quinine seems to be under much tighter restrictions in the United States than it is in several other places around the world, including Europe. Specifically, it appears that quinine is still an integral ingredient in tonic water sold around the world due to the bitter taste it provides.

We'd like to take a look at why this is and if there's reason to think that:

• The United States is overly-reactive to quinine; or
• The rest of the world needs to remove quinine from products.

An Overview

When taking a look at products offered that contain quinine, we discovered that quinine is not completely absent from products in the United States. In fact, quinine can still be found in some brands of tonic water and assorted energy drinks. However, it appears that the limits on the amount of quinine that can be present in any product is much smaller than those same products offered in other countries. Specifically, quinine is limited to 83 parts per million in the United States, which in plain English means "not much at all."

Meanwhile, a study of any type of limit in Europe and other parts of the world proved futile at best. The only mention of any comparative limit that we saw was that quinine is much more accepted in non-US markets than it is here. In fact, quinine appears in such products as Sprite in Australia, something you'd never find in the United States.

So what's the result?

Thus far, the results that we've found are inconclusive when it comes to quinine's presence in non-medical consumer products. There was no news of outbreaks of side effects in Europe or Australia due to drinking too much tonic water or Sprite, and there was no news of new restrictions on the substance as a result.

The issue surrounding quinine in the United States is its off-label use for treating leg cramps, and this ingestion of a high amount of quinine is what is creating all the suffering that we are all hearing about in the news.

Therefore, if you travel abroad, don't be concerned if your drink contains a bit of quinine. However, do not use it to treat cramps. If you have been injured as a result of using quinine, contact a quinine attorney at Williams Kherkher immediately to schedule a free initial consultation.