Paul Breen, who trains up to 500 young tradespeople in western Sydney each year, told Daily Mail Australia the sugary, caffeinated drinks are actually making young tradies work slower.

Newbies are arriving on work sites with the habit of consuming several energy drinks a day to make up for lack of sleep and poor physical condition.

Electrical apprentice Matt Glass told Daily Mail Australia the drinks are so cheap that his workmates have 'two for breakfast and two for lunch' each day.

But the drinks end up make the young tradies worse at their jobs because it affects their concentration and mental health.

Some reports say the trainees are getting the taste for energy drinks at high school, with adults reporting seeing up to 30 students queuing up to buy them at servos near schools in the morning.

Breen, who runs Productivity Bootcamp to prepare tradies for the construction industry, said the bins at his Penrith site are filled every week with empty energy drink cans.

“We toss the bins out in front of them and say ‘lads look at this, look what you're doing to yourselves’.”

He said the young tradies 'get a burst of energy and confidence' from the drinks at first, and they copy their mates who buy into the brands partly due to their imagery of extreme sports.

“After a while, their young bodies start to break down,”Breen said.

“They have problems sleeping, and it affects their concentration and their mental health, big time. It's like putting bad petrol in a good engine.

“I do think they should be banned.

“They should get rid of the vending machines that sell them from big sites too, I guarantee employees wouldn't kick up if those drinks are not there, they'd just drink water if that's all that's all there is.”

Breen's company provides skills training and nutrition for teenagers who start out as 'with bad eating habits and no strength in their back and legs, no core strength'.

Often their poor physical condition results from their diets, including too much fast food, soft drinks, energy drinks, and vaping or smoking cigarettes.

He said around 50% of trainees arrive with an energy drink habit. 

Multiple studies have linked sugary energy drinks to breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer, and to obesity and mental health issues including increased anxiety, depression and problems concentrating.

He said once the teenagers understand the real benefits of healthier food - and that drinking water and eating a proper breakfast will give them energy all day long - they happily change their diets.

Glass, a third-year electrical apprentice, gave up energy drinks after doing Breen's training and completing his own research.

“I looked into it what doctors said about it, and people as young as 23 were having heart attacks from drinking too many, in Australia and in the US,” he said.

Last year an unnamed 21-year-old English university student spent 58 days in the hospital and was being considered for an organ transplant after consuming four 500ml energy drinks every day for two years.

Nutritionists say tradies are not the only ones affected.

Workers in many jobs with early starts, such as distribution, hospitality and even offices, are grabbing energy drinks for a morning kick-start, said Leanne Elliston, a dietician and spokesperson for Nutrition Australia.