I got published in the 49er

Alcohol awareness month: how aware are you?
By: Angela Brantley
Health beat
Pubished in CSULB's Daily 49er


LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 26, 2007) - April is Alcohol Awareness Month, but college students may not as aware as they should be; students are not acknowledging the impact of alcohol abuse or the programs on campus that are dedicated to educating, preventing and treating alcohol abuse.

Gary DeVercelly, a freshman at Rider University who is originally from Long Beach, died on March 30 after binge drinking at a fraternity party. Approximately 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 will die this year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes. Alcohol abuse, by college students, will also account for 599,000 injuries and 97,000 cases of sexual assault this year in the United States, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

One of the biggest problems associated with college drinking is binge drinking. Like DeVercelly, many students don’t realize their own limits for alcohol consumption.

Binge drinking, while there is no common consensus, is more commonly referred to as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in a span of two hours; one drink is equivalent to a 12-ounce beer, four ounces of wine or a one-ounce shot of 100 proof liquor, according to NIAA.

“I had no idea that five drinks for men was considered binge drinking, maybe I do binge sometimes,” said Eric Yarger, a senior at Cal State Long Beach.

The amount of alcohol that is related to binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning, impaired judgment, a decrease in physical health, a decrease in mental health, lower grades and alcoholism, which can also lead to other consequences.

CSULB’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) program is dedicated to reducing these negative consequences associated with college binge drinking, according to ATOD coordinator, Ralph Davis. Davis believes that binge drinking “is the biggest concern…it is one of the most preventable losses of life.”

One of ATOD’s newer programs is called e-CHUG, which allows students to find out if their alcohol use is excessive. E-CHUG is an electronic assessment that compares ones own drinking patterns to other people on campus, other people in the United States that are of the same age and gender and college students in general.

This assessment also shows how alcohol is affecting one’s life based on your health, nutrition, finances and ones possibility to addiction due to hereditary factors, according to Davis; “It just gives you a really good feedback.” This assessment is located on the ATOD Web site.

ATOD is currently trying to make the e-CHUG assessment mandatory for incoming freshmen or for students who move into the dorms, according to Davis.

ATOD also has a peer-education program in which peer educators are trained to work with students and have peer-to-peer conversations about drugs and alcohol.

Drug, Alcohol, Tobacco Education (D.A.T.E) is another on campus program dedicated to educating students. D.A.T.E. takes place in residence halls on Wednesday nights because typically college weekends start on Thursday nights. ATOD’s goal with D.A.T.E. is to help students plan and think about their weekends more and how to make safer choices.