SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION > Alcohol Statistics

Alcohol Statistics

April is alcohol awareness month
each year, a typical young person in the U.S. is inundated with more than 1000 commercials for beer and wine coolers and several thousand fictional drinking incidents on T.V.

"Keeping Teens Drug Free" planner

alcohol-related crashes in Minnesota cost the public more than $1.5 billion in 1997
-the average alcohol-related fatality in Minnesota cost $3.5 million dollars
-Public Services Research Institute, Landover, MD.

alcohol is involved in 50% of all drinking fatalities
in the U.S., every 30 minutes someone is killed in an alcohol-related traffic accident
over 15 million Americans are dependent on alcohol
each year the liquor industry spends almost $2 billion dollars on advertising and encouraging the consumption of alcoholic beverages
Americans spend over $90 billion each year on alcoholic beverages
an average American may consume over 25 gallons of beer, 2 gallons of wine, and 1.5 gallons of distilled spirits each year.
pregnant women who drink are feeding alcohol to their babies. Unfortunately, the underdeveloped liver of the baby can only burn alcohol at half the rate of it's mother, so the alcohol stays in the baby's system twice as long.
alcohol causes the stomach to produce excess acid, which can eventually lead to ulcers and internal bleeding.
with hard coughing or vomitting, weakened veins in the esophagus can burst, causing you to bleed to death.
alcohol kills liver cells and also causes too much fat to gather in the liver, forming scar tissue
every drink kills brain cells -long-term drinking damages the nerves that allow a person to control their muscles and sense pain, temperature, pressure, and the position of their body.
in men, consumption of alcohol lowers the production of testosterone. Lack of testosterone may cause impotence and decrease sperm production.

-Health Edco. A division of WRS Group Inc., Waco TX. 1995

in Canada, the value of spirits, wine, and beer sales amounted to $12.4 billion dollars in 1998/99, up 5.6% from the previous year. Beer accounted for 53% of this total.
in Ontario, the net income of liquor authorities and the Ontario government revenue from the control and sale of alcoholic beverages in 1998/99 was $1,329,000.00
Ontario accounted for 66% of the total volume of sales of all spirit-based coolers
Canadians purchased more beer than any other alcoholic beverage-2.1 billion litres in 1998/99.

-The Daily. Statistics Canada, June 22, 2000.

67% of Ontario students surveyed indicated they had used alcohol in the past 12 months
7.1% of Ontario students surveyed reported consuming five or more drinks on a single occasion five or more times in the last four weeks
Ontario male students surveyed drank more (70.7%) than female students (64.2%)
students from Northern Ontario reported the highest drinking rate at 77.6% followed by Western Ontario at 70.5%, Eastern Ontario at 65.4% and the greater Toronto Area at 59.4%
11% of Ontario students surveyed reported drinking at hazardous or harmful levels

-Center for Addiction and Mental Health "Youth Scoop #2"