Part 4

Another Global Addiction​—Alcohol

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION reports that alcohol abuse is an “occasion for alarm” all over the planet. Here are some trends reported:

Between 1950 and 1976 the annual per capita consumption of alcohol increased in 25 countries from 30 percent in Portugal to a staggering 500 percent in the Federal Republic of Germany.

In England and Wales admissions to hospitals for alcoholism have risen 20-fold during the last 25 years.

In Brazil first admissions [to hospitals] with a diagnosis of alcoholism trebled between 1960 and 1970.

One third of all road fatalities in Zambia and up to two thirds in Venezuela are caused by excessive drinking.

“So rapidly have . . . alcohol-related problems increased, that they now rank among the world’s major public health concerns, threatening to slow down economic development in the Third World, and to overburden the health services of most countries.”​—WHO report.

Alcohol is involved in crime all over the globe. The report says that studies “implicate alcohol in 13 to 50 percent of rapes, 24 to 72 percent of assaults and 28 to 86 percent of homicides.”

“We are very worried by what appears to be an increasing problem​—this connection between drink and violent crime. It is very clear that around half the murders in this country were committed by people after they had been drinking.”​—Lord Harris, chairman of the Parole Board of Britain.

IF YOU ARE PREGNANT, DON’T DRINK!

A California study of 32,000 women indicated that women taking two drinks a day ran twice as much risk of miscarriage as did women who abstained.

A New York study indicated that alcohol seems to act as “a fetal poison, most likely acute,” and that as little as one ounce of alcohol per week could be dangerous to the fetus.

A few drinks a day during pregnancy can greatly increase the risk of the child’s being born with fetal alcohol syndrome, which can result in physical deformities and mental retardation.

“Any woman contemplating pregnancy should abstain from drinking all alcoholic beverages both before and during the entire term of her pregnancy.”​—Dr. Patrick MacLeod, medical geneticist, and Dr. David F. Smith, pediatrician.