The Many Harms Associated With Alcohol
Saturday, March 21st, 2009By Daniel Jordan, General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center
It is often easy to overlook the damage alcohol causes in our society since, unlike other drugs like cocaine, it is legal. Alcohol continues to be encouraged as a social “lubricant” in our busy world as a way to unwind or to have fun. However, as Emergency Services prepares to gear up for another high school graduation, perhaps it is time to review some important statistics about the alcohol-related health and social harms in BC and Canada.
Types of Harms Related to Alcohol
According to the BC Provincial Health Officer, alcohol-related health and social harms derive largely from four properties or effects of consumption:
1. Toxicity - alcohol poisoning (overdose)
Death from acute cardiac arrhythmia or acute pancreatitis. More often than not, alcohol overdoses affect the inexperienced drinkers who tend to be under age.
2. Intoxication - injury or crime
Death or injury resulting from violence, sexual assault, crime, alcohol-involved traffic casualties, etc.
- According to the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, approximately one-quarter of the 400+ fatal motor vehicle crashes that occur every year in BC are alcohol-related (Rajabali & Pike, 2008).
- According to a 2002 study (Pernanen, Cousineau, Brochu, & Sun, 2002), one-third of all crimes, charges, and prison sentences in Canada involve alcohol.
- A recent study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that more than 21 per cent of sexual assaults are facilitated by drugs, up from 12 per cent in 2003. While this is a huge increase, an equally important finding from the Canadian Medical Association Journal research is that almost 90 per cent of these victims had used alcohol before the attack.
- Deaths due to toxicity (poisoning) and intoxication (injury)combined accounted for 2.7 per cent of all deaths in BC between 2001 and 2005 (Source: BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project).
3. Dependence - alcoholism
Long-term excessive use of alcohol is directly linked to cirrhosis of the liver, some types of cancers, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), brain damage, and wasting of the limb and heart muscles.
- In a 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey, 3.6 per cent of the BC population (122,400 people) were estimated to be alcohol dependent.
- There is a strong correlation between heavy alcohol use and mental health conditions, such as major depression and anxiety disorders. It is estimated that 1.3 per cent of Canadians age 15 and older (approximately 336,761) reported experiencing co-occurring major alcohol use and mental health disorders in the previous year (Rush et al., forthcoming).
- Deaths due to chronic drinking accounted for 2.1 per cent of all deaths in BC between 2001 and 2005 (Source: BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project).
4. The Intergenerational Effect of Alcohol - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
A fourth source of harm that involves alcohol is alcohol consumption by pregnant women. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or FASD, is the leading cause of preventable mental disability in Canada. FASD is unique in that the harm inflicted is to the unborn fetus rather than to the alcohol-consuming individual or other members of society. Estimates are for every 1,000 babies born up to 3 will have the full features of FASD, while an additional 5 or 6 will have significant long-term disabilities. In BC, between 200 and 320 infants may be born affected by alcohol each year (Provincial Health Officer, 2002). A substantial protion of the costs of special needs education, youth justice, adult incarceration, homelessness, and adddiction can be attributed to FASD (Provincial Health Officer, 2002).
Conclusion
The ripple effect of alcohol in Canadian society is revealed in the statistics. According to the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey , 10 percent of Canadians reported at least one harm during the past year from one’s own drinking (age 15+) and nearly 4 in 10 reported at least one harm * during the past year from others’ drinking (18+).
At our treatment center, alcohol is still the drug of choice for over three-fifths of our clients. For those whose drug of choice is cocaine, alcohol is often their second drug of choice. Even though we don’t treat for date-rape drugs since few develop a dependence to them, our date-rape drug section accounts for four of our top 10 search terms for people visiting our Sunshine Coast Health Center website. We believe there is a need for public education on how alcohol is a factor in sexual-related assaults.
Hopefully, Canadians will begin to appreciate that there are many ways to get hurt, directly or indirectly, from alcohol. One does not need to develop alcoholism to be negatively impacted. This message needs to be conveyed to high school students who often have a very narrow understanding of the harms associated with alcohol.
(*) Note: Harms associated with others’ drinking include (1) being insulted or humiliated (22.1%), (2) verbal abuse (15.8%), (3) serious arguments or quarrels (15.5%), (4) being pushed or shoved (10.8%), (5) family or marriage problems (10.5 %), and (6) being hit or physically assaulted (3.2%).
Source
This blog article is a summary of Public Health Approach to Alcohol Policy: An Updated Report from the Provincial Health Officer issued in December 2008 by P.R.W. Kendall, Provincial Health Officer.
Dedication
This blog is dedicated to Richie Dowrey who is in grave condition in hospital following a punch to the face from a fellow patron at the Fountainhead Pub on Davie Street in Vancouver on St. Patrick’s Day. Richie was punched without warning or any apparent reason. Richie has two children. Our prayers are with him and his family for a speedy recovery.
References
Du Mont, Janice; Macdonald, S.; Rotbard, N.; Asllani, E.; Bainbridge, D.; and Cohen, M. (March 2009)
Factors associated with suspected drug-facilitated sexual assault
Can. Med. Assoc. J., 180: 513 - 519 ; doi:10.1503/cmaj.080570
Pernanen, K., Cousineau, M., Brochu, S., & Sun, F. (2002) Proportions of crimes associated with alcohol and other drugs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
Provincial Health Officer (2002) Public health approach to alcohol policy: a report of the Provincial Health Officer. Victoria, BC: Ministry of Health Planning.
Rajabali, F., & Pike, I. (2008) Alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths in British Columbia: 2003-2005. Vancouver, BC: BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit.
Rush, B., Urbanoski, K., Bassani, D., Saulo, C., Wild, C., Strikes, C., et al. (forthcoming) Prevalence of co-occurring substance use and other mental disorders in the Canadian population. Canadian journal of psychiatry.
