Wide-awake drunks

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 4

Wide-awake drunks

Black coffee and cold showers do not sober anybody: all they do is produce a wide-awake drunk, according to the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council. The council has produced three new leaflets on drinking in time for the Christmas party season, the Press Association reports. One, entitled “Fact and Fiction,” sets out to debunk a number of commonly held myths about alcohol.

Cold showers, food and fresh air can cause problems by r making people think they have sobered up, the leaflet says. “Awakened drunks, feel-

Ing they have sobered, may try to perform tasks such as driving, of which they are no more capable than a sleepy drunk,” it says.

A second leaflet, “Facts and Effects,” says that New Zealanders, already big drinkers by world standards, have lifted their liquor consumption to the equivalent of nine litres of pure alcohol a year for every member of the population. In 1955, the figure was about 5.5 litres of pure alcohol, and has risen steadily since 1960. One possible way to sober up the members of the population who do more than their share to keep the consumption fig-

ures rising is to give them a copy of the third leaflet, “Threat to Health.” It outlines the results of recent research on the health of heavy drinkers.

The Investigation found that 81 per cent of the drinkers had liver disease, 87 per cent had damage to their nervous systems, 6! per cent had Illnesses of the digestive system, 47 per cent heart prob’ems, 43 per cent Infections, 25 per cent anaemia, and 30 per cent had injuries caused by falls and other accidents. The leaflet will be distributed throughout chemists. doctors, public health nurses, and agencies dealing with alcoholism.