Drinking Capacities Tested

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 17

Drinking Capacities Tested

Then can be no simple yea or no answer to. “Can I drive safely after moderate drinking?” the Consumers’ Institute magazine, “Consumer,” says after examining how social drinking affects a person’s blood alcohol content and whether the

limits set under the new legislation allow scope for sensible social drinking.

“Alcohol affects different people to a different extent and can even affect the same person to a different degree under different conditions,” the journal says. “Some people seem to have a natural inbuilt tolerance to alcohol, while others develop such a

tolerance over the years, particularly if they drink fairly regularly. So, while one person may get away with it after two jugs of beer, his friend may not be so fortunate.” The institute undertook its survey to relate social drinking patterns to resulting blood alcohol concentrations and to explain what milligrams and millilitres meant in terms of jugs of beer, nips of whisky or glasses of wine. Social drinking was divided into three categories—the semi-formal dinner party, the cocktail party and the gettogether in a bar after work. At the bar parties, members of the panel, made up of 10 men and four women, were encouraged to drink only beer—s 6 ounces or about a jug and a half in an hour . and a half.

At the cocktail parties members drank the same

basic quantity of alcohol, but mostly in spirits—eight single nips. At the dinner parties they again drank the same basic amount of alcohol, made up of three single nips of spirits, lOoz of table wine and a liqueur.

In addition to the main panel, five young men in their twenties, representing young “lunch-time drinkers,” were given two eight-ounce beers at lunch and in the evening eight seven-ounce beers.

The levels set by the insti-tute-five ounces of spirits, equivalent to eight single nips, or 56 ounces of beer—were generally safe from a legal point of view, particularly if food -was taken with the drink. “None of our panel members who kept to the agreed levels reached 100 milligrams

per 100 millilitres, although some came periously close to it on occasions,” the journal says. “There were, however, many instances when blood alcohol got into the nineties, particularly at the bar and cocktail parties. Even at the dinner parties leveis in the eighties were not uncommon.” At the legal maximum a person was not in any shape to be driving, the institute says, and adds the advice: “So don’t push your drinking . to anywhere near the limit, or if you do take a taxi.” At both bar and cocktail parties there were a number of cases where readings were below 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres, and at dinner parties levels got as low as 29, although the same panel member who recorded 31 for the second dinner party got 63 at the third. Variability of the blood alcohol ratio in the individual was greater than expected. On occasions the readings of three panel members differed widely after they had drunk the same quantity under the same conditions. This suggested that people should be wary of relying on what had happened the last time they drank the same amount A good meal often resulted i in a tower alcohol concentraI tion.

The institute is convinced that the most dangerous is the “one for the road." One of the panel members who habitually drank rather slowly throughout each function found it necessary to drink a large part of her quota in the last few minutes. This woman’s [blood alcohol content continued to rise for up to an hour after drinking had stopped. This was longer than normal for other panel members. The cumulative effect of alcohol should be understood by all motorists, the journal says. Panel members who drank 16 ounces of beer and had’ a counter lunch during their meal break showed little effect of their midday drink in the evening. A break between drinking or evbn a period of sleep did not necessarily mean starting from scratch when drinking was resumed. There was a strong possibility that there would be a residue of alcohol from the previous drinks.