Drinking and Auto Crash Injuries | |
Even Small Amounts of Alcohol Can Increase InjuryMaio and his colleagues believe it is the most detailed study of its kind ever performed. Previous studies that suggested no connection between injury severity and alcohol did not include considerations of crash severity or the full range of injury. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes killed more than 17,440 people in 2001, and injured 300,000 more, costing $45 billion. Alcohol is well known to reduce the judgment and performance of drivers and others engaging in activities that require concentration, quick reaction, and precise movement. This knowledge has led to laws that set limits on the level of alcohol that drivers can have in their blood, most commonly set by states at 0.08 or 0.1 percent of blood volume. It has also led to major public-health campaigns aimed at preventing drunk driving – such as efforts to encourage those who have been drinking to let someone else drive them home. A federal law passed in 2000 requires all states to have a legal limit of 0.08 by October, 2003, or risk losing federal highway construction funds. Fourteen states have yet to comply. But the U-M study shows that that even drivers and passengers with blood-alcohol percentages less than 0.1 percent suffered worse injuries and had higher likelihood of severe injury than those who were completely sober. "Basically, this shows that alcohol can make one's risk of injury from a crash worse, and in fact the effect may be strongest in relatively minor crashes," says Maio. He notes that the effect of alcohol on injury varies with blood alcohol levels. Though the exact mechanism for the increased injury is still a mystery, the researchers point to animal studies showing that alcohol affects the membranes of cells. The kinetic energy of a vehicle crash could be enough to burst cell membranes that have been altered by alcohol, thereby increasing the severity of injury, Maio says. But only further research will tell for sure. In the meantime, the researchers suggest that emergency medicine staff – at the crash scene and at the hospital – should begin taking alcohol intake into account when triaging and treating crash victims. Other injuries that result from some sort of impact – such as falls or assaults – may also be affected by alcohol intake, Maio suggests, though further research is needed. And, as society grapples with measuring and reducing the impact of alcohol-related crashes, the researchers say their data should be taken into account. "Because excess injury results even at alcohol levels below 0.10 percent, previous analyses of alcohol-related injury costs may have underestimated the true cost of alcohol in motor vehicle crashes," they write. Source: University of Michigan Health System |
| ~ Buddy T |
| previous |1 |2 |
