alcohol: the social drug – often a taboo subject · dräger review 106 | online | november 2012...

Dräger review 106 | online | november 2012

Alcohol: The Social Drug – Often a Taboo Subject

The scope of the problem:

u�All over the world, every adult over the age of 15 drinks roughly 4.5 liters of pure alcohol per year on average. This figure has largely remained constant since 1990.1

u�Alcohol abuse results in 2.5 million deaths worldwide each year.2

u�worldwide each year, 320,000 young people die, between the ages of 15 and 29, from causes that are associated with alcohol abuse. This is 9 % of all deaths within this age group.3

u�Alcohol consumption per capita varies around the world depending on income. The higher the income, the more pure alcohol is consumed per person per year.4

Enjoying and Abusing:Alcohol can be consumed for pleasure or abused as a drug. The wHo has defined a “Patterns of Drinking Score” that uses a scale of 1 (social drinker) to 5 (high-risk abuse).5

Low income

Lower-middle income

Upper-middle income

High income

2.97 liters 4.41 liters 9.46 liters 10.55 liters

Most risky drinking pattern

Least risky drinking patternData not availableNot applicable

Drinking PatternMost risky drinking pattern

Least risky drinking pattern

1 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [Figure 3, p 8] | 2 www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/en/ 3 www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/en/ | 4 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [Table 2, p. 6]5 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p.15]


The Consequences:

u�Continual alcohol abuse in particular can lead to a whole range of serious physical and mental illnesses.

u�Alcohol abuse affects not only the alcohol consumer, but also his or her family (co-dependence), and can even impact total strangers if intoxication results in accidents at work or traffic accidents.

u�Alcohol is the leading cause of death among men between the ages of 15 and 50.8 members of the upper middle class are especially at risk.

u�Alcohol and traffic accidents: The wHo estimates that automobile accidents caused by alcohol consumption alone cost more than eight million years of (healthy) life worldwide each year.9

u�According to the eU, approximately 11 % of traffic fatalities in 2010 resulted directly – and 25 % indirectly – from drunken driving. A total of 2 % of all the kilometers driven in the eU are accounted for by drivers under the influence of alcohol.10

Alcohol affects people in different ways. Among other things, it lowers reaction times and impairs perception.6

This can have severe consequences for traffic safety in particular, as people under the influence of alcohol tend to drive faster and stray off the road more frequently.7

The Effects:

Alcohol: The Social Drug – Often a Taboo Subject –

Times over speed limit Lane deviationCollisions Driving simulator performance index

Per

cent

age

of s

ubje

cts

with

im

pair

ed p

erfo

rman

ce

Per

cent

age

of s

ubje

cts

with

im

pair

ed p

erfo

rman

ce

Blood alcohol concentration Blood alcohol concentration

Reaction time Incorrect responses on peripheral search task Tracking error Divided attention performance index

0.08

20

40

60

80

100

0.06 0.04 0.02 0.08

20

40

60

80

100

0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00

6 www.ias.org.uk/resources/papers/europe/phproject/drinkdriving-report.pdf [p. 22] | 7 www.ias.org.uk/resources/papers/europe/phproject/drinkdriving-report.pdf [p. 22] 8 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p. 24] | 9 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [Table 9, p. 29] | 10 www.adv-radio-sci.net/10/19/2012/ars-10-19-2012.pdf


u�of the ten most important ways of reducing alcohol abuse and its consequences, the wHo stresses the category “legal restrictions and Countermeasures.”11

u�blood-alcohol content limits differ between countries and range from 0 to 0.1 %.12

u�if all drivers in the eU had stayed within the legal alcohol consumption limits in their countries in 2010, there would have been 6,500 fewer alcohol-related traffic fatalities than the nearly 31,000 that were recorded.13

u�Driving impairment is caused by several factors, but all the experts agree that it will occur at an average blood-alcohol content of 0.04 % and up.14

u�Young and inexperienced drivers who drink are particularly at risk. Their likelihood of becoming involved in an accident with a blood-alcohol content of 0.05 % is 2.5 times higher than that of older and more experienced drivers with the same amount of alcohol in their blood.15

u�An average adult driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 % is 2.7 times more likely to have an accident than a sober one. This risk increases to 22 times higher at a level of 0.15 % – and any accident that does occur will be 200 times more severe than if the driver hadn’t drunk alcohol.16

u�The eU plans to introduce various measures to reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities by 50 % between now and 2020.17 These measures will include the installation of interlocks in all new buses and trucks, as well as each of those vehicles whose drivers had failed more than once against the valid legal alcohol limit.18

u�A strictly enforced legal limit alone reduces the risk of accidents caused by alcohol consumption by around 20 % – and this measure is also very cost-effective.19

u�The european Transport Safety Council is therefore calling on authorities to check 20 % of all drivers in the eU for signs of alcohol consumption each year.20

u�more and more countries are now, under certain circumstances, doing away with fines and license suspensions for drivers who violate DUi laws. instead, they are offering non-commercial drivers a type of probation if they install a breathalyzer interlock (see Dräger review 101, p. 36) in their vehicles and take part in a special rehabilitation program: Finland (since 2008, a probation period of one to three years; cost: approximately 150 euros per month), belgium (since 2010), the netherlands (since 2011), and Sweden (since 2012).21

The Measures:


11 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p. 41] | 12 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p. 47] 13 www.etsc.eu/documents/Drink_Driving_Towards_Zero_Tolerance.pdf [p. 9] | 14 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p. 46]15 whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9241595116_eng.pdf [p. 24] | 16 www.etsc.eu/documents/Drink_Driving_Towards_Zero_Tolerance.pdf [p. 10] | 17 eeas.europa.eu/delegations/switzerland/press_corner/focus/focus_items/20100809_de.htm | 18 www.etsc.eu/documents/Drink_Driving_Towards_Zero_Tolerance.pdf [p. 12.] | 19 www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msbgsruprofiles.pdf [p. 46] | 20 www.etsc.eu/documents/Drink_Driving_Towards_Zero_Tolerance.pdf [p. 15] | 21 www.etsc.eu/documents/Drink_ Driving_Towards_Zero_Tolerance.pdf [p. 21]



education, legislation, and strict monitoring and enforcement have been successful: u�The number of alcohol-related traffic accidents in the eU declined from 34 to 20 per

100,000 inhabitants between 1980 and 2004.22

u�Switzerland lowered its legal blood-alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05 % in 2005. The number of accident victims due to drunken driving declined by 44 % in the following three years.23

u�The average number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities decreased in the 27 eU member states by 7.6 % per year between 2001 and 2010. During the same period, the average number of non-alcohol-related traffic fatalities declined by 5.3 % per year.24

Encouraging Results:

In Favor:

in a representative survey in germany, nearly 60 % of the respondents expressed a general alcohol ban for all drivers.25

In favor 59 %

29 %

12 %

Against

Can’t say at the moment

22 www.ias.org.uk/resources/papers/europe/phproject/drinkdriving-report.pdf [p. 14] | 23 www.dvr.de/aktuelles/welt/1360.htm | 24 www.dvr.de/aktuelles/welt/3152.htm 25 www.dvr.de/presse/informationen/grafiken/2340.htm

alcohol: the social drug – often a taboo subject · dräger review 106 | online | november 2012...

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