Dangers Of Drinking And Driving
The Dangers of Alcohol Abuse Author: Christopher Evans A relaxing drink at lunch time, in the evenings or at the weekend is great. But when excess takes over from moderation, what are the dangers - or are there any dangers at all? Well the statistics unfortunately don't lie - The World He...
The Dangers of Alcohol Abuse
Author: Christopher Evans
A relaxing drink at lunch time, in the evenings or at the weekend is great. But when excess takes over from moderation, what are the dangers - or are there any dangers at all?
Well the statistics unfortunately don't lie - The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated recently that across the globe 1.8 million people's deaths every single year are wholly attributable to excessive consumption of alcohol. Moreover, it has been proven that a country's drinking levels directly parallel the level of harm caused, ie the more a country drinks, the more alcohol-related harm occurs.
Alcohol stands as the third leading cause of disease and injury, causing nearly one in ten of all premature deaths and ill health across Europe. This is ahead of obesity, diabetes and asthma and second only to smoking and blood pressure conditions.
In the longer term, regular alcohol consumption increases your risks of: liver damage, cancer (of the liver, mouth, throat, and breast), mental health problems, weight gain, heart disease, stroke, shrunken genitals and reduced fertility. Alcohol reduces the ability of your body to absorb nutrition. Furthermore the weight gain from drinking often contribute to other health conditions such as diabetes.
Alcohol Abuse in the UK
A recent report from the Office for National Statistics has shown that alcohol related diseases in the UK are killing nearly twice as many women as at the start of the 1990s. This has been partly due to the rise in acceptance of binge drinking
Approximately 30 years ago, alcohol related death rates for men and women in the UK were around two per 100,000, which was the lowest in western Europe. Now, the rate for men is 18 per 100,000, although this is still less than the European average.
Drinking and Driving
Drink driving is a criminal offence in the vast majority of countries. It impairs the user and makes them not only a danger to themselves, but also other road users. The level of breath or blood alcohol which determines the legal limit varies from country to country and the point at which an individual reaches this limit differs from one person to the next.
There is no "safe" level of alcohol if you intend to drive a motor vehicle. Alcohol affects co-ordination, judgement, reaction times and your ability to reason - including your tendency toward taking risks.
It is advised that you allow a minimum of 1 hour per 1 unit of alcohol consumed before driving or operating heavy machinery or electrical equipment in order to ensure that you are not under the influence of alcohol.
For example: A person drinks 6 pints (20 oz) of ordinary mid-strength beer (12 units), finishing their drinking at 11pm. They start work at 8am the following day. (9 Hours later).
12 Units - 9 hours = 3. In this scenario, the person could still have 3-4 units of alcohol left in their body whilst driving to work the following day - risking both Police prosecution and the safety of others. 3-4 Units will bring most men to the UK or USA legal driving limit of 80mg/dl and 3 units for most women.
The Government probably hsn’t woken up to this problem.
How come they aren’t any commericals showing the dangers of drinking(besides drunk driving)?
There are commericals showing the dangers of smoking ciggarettes, marijuana, meth, and not to drive drunk. But how come there are no commercials showing someone acting completly stupid while drinking alcohol, or waking up with a bad hangover, or anyother negative aspect of alcohol.
Yes, obviously death.. but what about permanent brain and liver damage?, paralysis, killing or harming someone else…
Why don’t you check out SADD or MADD’s web sites. I am sure they are loaded with facts you can use.
what are some dangers of drinking and driving to your body?
I know obviously death but what are some other dangers of drinking/doing drugs and driving. any websites would be helpful too. thank you!
How would you discourage people from drinking and driving?
A Chinese man has preserved his severed leg in formaldehyde for 20 years to warn people against the dangers of drink driving.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3437101.html
“As people in my home town don’t seem to care about driving after drinking, I thought I’d take it back home with me to educate them.”
Every August, he takes the leg out of its sealed tank and invites friends and people he suspects of drink driving to come and see it.
Will people learn anything from the Nick Adenhart tragedy about the dangers of drinking and driving?
It shouldn’t have to be a high profile victim that gets people to think twice about drinking and driving. Why can’t people get it through their head about how dangerous drinking and driving is?
Should we have advertisements on television in foreign languages to warn of the dangers of drink driving?
Over the years we’ve mostly come to accept that drinking and driving don’t mix. Should we have adverts to let our guests know it’s not the done thing here?
People who drink drive will not be deterred by an advertising campaign. It they were, it would be just non English speaking people who were caught. It’s an antisocial and irresponsible action that is carried out by antisocial and irresponsible people and no amount of advertising will stop them. The law needs to be changed in line with many other countries to zero alcohol in the blood stream when driving. With new drivers, this should be part of the education process when passing a test and perhaps even films of accidents and deaths shown to get the point across. The punishment should be stricter too with a 6 month community service order and a minimum ban of 3 years. When this punishment eventually sinks in, I am sure the levels of DD’s will decrease but it may take some time for that to happen.
No, history teaches us that people only care about themselves.
Most people that drink and drive think they are capable of handling it.
Or they are so drunk they can’t make decisions for themselves.
Few people would acknowledge that they are incapacitated.
It’s all about me.
I once asked a police officer is they saw a note on a car saying “this person has gone home in a cab because they were drunk”, would you still ticket the car, he said absolutely, even tow it if that’s what the law called for.
Until the courts in the UK take ‘drink driving’ seriously it will go on forever. No need for education on this subject (as has been suggested) – enoughs been done in the past with regard to that – to no avail.
Punishment is the only answer – everybody knows the rules – and those that do it are just trying to ‘buck’ the system – these so-called ‘celebs’ are getting away with it all of the time – appearing in front of easily impressed judges who ‘keep’ giving them another chance.
Conviction on ‘drink driving’ (whatever amount) should be 5years in jail – no parole – seize the vehicle and dispose of it – and the trouble would drop ‘dramaticly’ over a short period of time.
Don’t worry about showing them ‘amputated’ legs etc – that means nothing to them as does their saying sorry – it means nothing – their only sorry they’ve got caught out – no matter about the senseless deaths and injurys they cause.