HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Opunake Times, 13 August 1948, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

DRINKING AND DRIVING (By the Department of Health) Alcohol and petrol cfon't mix—when one goes into the driver's mouth and the other into the carburettor. Alcohol is a drug which, :io matter how we may try to talk ourselves out of it, affects our brains. This is just cold, scientific fact. What alcohol does is l-o influence those parts of the brain, the so-called higher centres that give Us judgment, concentration, self-criticism and skill. The same part of the brain gives us anxiety and. frustration and worry. Alcohol cuts down the activity of this part of the brain. It reduces the influence of the intellectual brain and so it increases the freedom of the lower brain, the brain that is concerned with the more boisterous ana* the more lively activities of life.

The effect of even small quantities of alcohol is to diminish skill and self-criticism and to prolong reaction time, the time between spotting a danger and acting' accordingly. In fact, it produces just those conditions that make a skilful driver of a motor-vehicle less skilful. Co-ordination Reduced Doctors, after experiment iud test, have declared that two to three ounces of whisky—an ounce is about a tablespoonful-—is enough to affect driving skill. Aiter all, in good driving the eyes to follow quickly an object that comes nearer' and nearer; hand movements must ue sure; hand and eye must he worked together and leg movements must be skilled.. Both the rapidity and accuracy of this necessary co-ordination are reduced bv two or three ounces of spirits. The body can gei rid of about, one ounce of whisky an hour, no more. So you can bee How *thetrouble can develop. One of alcohol's little tricks is to make" us feel pleased with ourselves—less self-critical. People only think they are driving better when they have had, a drink or two. They are not—it is physically impossible to drive better after a few drinks.

Road casualties are high enough now, and more* and more vehicles are using the roads. We should not have to*learn by bitter experience, that when driving, a little alcohol can he a dangerous thing. An amount which would be quiet proper and sensible if you are not driving can be" Improper and dangerous if you are.