Alcohol Poisoning Kills Six People Per Day

Although when many people think of alcohol poisoning they envision young people at wild parties, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows that’s not the biggest age group killed by alcohol poisoning.

Between 2010 through 2012, men between the ages of 35 and 64 were most likely to be the victims, the CDC report found. The CDC also found that six people die every day of alcohol poisoning.

“There is a big problem with alcohol abuse,” says Salvatore Pardo, MD, vice chairman of emergency medicine at LIJ Medical Center in New Hyde Park. “In the mental health field, there are a lot of reasons that people can drink; with a lot of people we call it self-medicating. They do a drug of choice to mask some sort of pain or some sort of emotional distress they’re having… The drug of choice is usually some sort of sedative, whether it be prescription drugs, alcohol… Alcohol, in general, since it is a legal drug that is well integrated into society, is a difficult thing to address on a casual level.”

And, he added, bad habits start early.

“From college –age kids, feelings of invincibility, self-destructive behavior, peer pressure and whatnot, I think those types of things carry into later life.”

Dr. Pardo encourages anyone who will be driving not to drink and for people to keep in mind that, generally speaking, it takes one hour for 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine and about an ounce of hard liquor to be processed through your body.

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