Alcohol Kills 1,400 Students A Year (2002)

Janelle Kanovich, 22, of Harrisburg, Pa., drinks tequila out of the bottle.An estimated 1,400 college students are killed every year in alcohol-related accidents, according to a study released Tuesday that researchers call the most comprehensive look ever at the consequences of student drinking.

"Half the World Trade Center casualties are happening every year in our colleges," said one researcher, Mark Goldman, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida.

The researchers say the figures show that college drinking needs to be seen as a major health concern.

The study supported by the federally estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking.

The study does not say whether the problems are increasing or decreasing. A Harvard School of Public Health survey released last month reported that more students are abstaining from alcohol, but levels of binge drinking having at least four or five drinks at a sitting are the same as in the early 1990s.

Motor vehicle fatalities were the most common form of alcohol-related deaths. The statistics included college students killed in car accidents if the students had alcohol in their blood, even if the level was below the legal limit.

Students who died in other alcohol-related accidents, such as falls and drownings, were included. Those who died as a result of homicides or suicides were not.

Goldman said general messages warning of the dangers of alcohol do not appear to be effective with college students, at least by themselves. What's more effective is teaching students how to resist peer pressure.

"Many of the students don't want to do it, but they don't know how to say no," he said.

Communities and colleges need to work together as well to prevent underage drinking and limit the number of stores that sell alcohol, he said.

"The university can't do them by themselves because even if they did effective things, it might just squeeze it off into the community," Goldman said.

日前，美国的调查人员针对美国大学生饮酒造成的后果进行了一次深入彻底的调查。调查结果于4月10日公布，结果表明美国每年有大约1400名大学生死于"酒精事故"。

其中的一名研究人员，南佛罗里达大学的心理学教授马克·戈尔德曼说："我们大学里每年因饮酒过量而导致的死亡人数已经达到9·11事件中世贸中心里死亡人数的一半。"

参加调查的人员普遍认为，这个结果说明大学生酗酒已经成为一个值得重视的的健康问题了。

这个由美国联邦政府赞助的调查小组称，大学生酗酒已经造成50万起伤亡事故和7万起性骚扰和强奸事件的发生。此外由于酒后失控，有40万名年龄在18至24岁的学生在没有任何安全措施的情况下发生过性行为。

这项调查结果并没有说明这样的状况是否得到了改善或者正在进一步恶化。哈佛大学公共卫生学院上个月的一份调查报告表明，已经有越来越多的学生主动戒绝饮酒，但是另一方面学生们在聚会时的饮酒量却仍不见减少，还像20世纪90年代初一样一饮便是4、5杯。

酗酒后最常导致的恶果就是交通事故引起的死亡。统计数字表明因酒后驾车导致车祸而死亡的大学生中不仅包括酒精含量超标的人，甚至还包括了那些血液中酒精含量低于法定标准的人。

此外，饮酒过量所导致的诸如摔跤和溺水等事故也包括在以上列举的数字之内，但是凶杀或者自杀事件则没有包括在内。

戈尔德曼教授说，如果对这些学生只给予一般性的警告根本不起任何作用，至少靠他们自己是不会见效的。有效的方法是教会学生们懂得去拒绝。

他说："他们中有很多人并不想这样滥饮，但是他们却不知道如何去拒绝别人的邀请。"

他说，为了防止年轻人过量饮酒和未成年人酗酒，社会应当和学校配合起来限制出售酒精饮品商店的数量。

戈尔德曼说："学校单方面行动是不够的，因为即使学校采取了有效的措施，如果社会不予以配合，他们还是可能会钻社会的空子的。"