Research
Life Savers, here we come!
The Century Council is pleased to be attending the 2010 Lifesavers Annual Conference in Philadelphia. Lifesavers is the premier national highway safety meeting in the United States dedicated to reducing the tragic toll of deaths and injuries on our nation's roadways. Each year, the Lifesavers Conference provides a forum that delivers relevant and timely common-sense solutions to today's critical highway safety problems.
The conference addresses a wide range of safety topics, from child passenger safety and occupant protection to roadway and vehicle safety and technology. It offers the latest information on advances in highway safety, highlights successful programs and draws attention to emerging safety issues.
We always learn something new at the Lifesavers Conference, and we’re looking forward to going. Let us know if you’re heading too!
Underage drinking, still a problem
New statistics on underage drinking are in.
Nearly 28% of American youth aged 12-20 reported consuming alcohol in the past month, according to data released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, reflecting a relatively stagnant trend in underage drinking nationally. Rates were lowest in Utah (13.7%,) with North Dakota and Vermont at the top of the list (40.6 and 40.4, respectively.)
Of this 28%, only 9% reported buying the alcohol themselves the last time they drank. This in itself is heartening. Our Cops In Shops program, now in 49 states, focuses specifically on making it difficult for underage drinkers to acquire alcohol. We think this program has been pretty successful. However, the relatively small number of underage purchasers of alcohol this points to the need for stronger, more sensible social host laws to prevent teens from getting alcohol from parties or parents.
Alaska and New Mexico had the lowest rates of self-purchase, at 3.1 and 3.7%, respectively. This rate was highest in Louisiana and the District of Columbia, both at 18.8%.
While we’re disappointed by the lack of movement in these numbers, we’re seeing a lot of progress in some states. We’re going to keep working to ensure that the numbers keep dropping.
College students, it's your turn!
For most of us here at The Century Council, college is a couple years in the rearview mirror. While our Research Department provides us with great quantitative and qualitative research on the drinking habits of college students, there’s something to learn from those still schlepping to lectures.
For that reason, The Century Council is happy to announce that we will be partnering with four universities across the nation in helping them to carry through their plans to fight college binge drinking. The four universities are University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, The George Washington University, and Ohio University.
These students’ campaigns will be based upon the work they did for the 2009 National Student Advertising Competition, an annual competition hosted by the American Advertising Federation. These schools will receive grant money to evaluate college binge drinking, implement a strategy to fight it, and then measure their results.
We’re focused on college binge drinking in other ways as well. We’ve provided a research grant to the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) to learn more about the role of emergency services with regard to college binge drinking. We’ve also partnered with the Center for Leadership in Public Service at Fisher College to further explore the issue of college binge drinking from the perspective of campus law enforcement.
While this isn't the first time we've focused on alcohol education for college students, we're very excited to work with students from these schools!
Alcohol continues slow, but gradual decline among U.S. teens
The 2009 Monitoring the Future Study continues to reflect longer-term, gradual decline in underage drinking among American youth. From 2004 to 2009 decreases were noted in lifetime, past year, past month, and binge drinking prevalence rates of alcohol consumption among all three grade levels. Perceived availability of alcohol continues to trend downward, reaching record low levels in 2009 among teens. The declines in alcohol consumption may be a reflection of the decline in the reported availability of alcohol. Reported availability of alcohol among 8th graders declined significantly from 2008 to 2009 – down more than two percent to 62%.
The latest edition of the survey reveals a statistically significant decline in the annual rate of alcohol consumption among 8th graders from 2008 to 2009, reaching a historic low level of 30%. Among 10th and 12th graders annual consumption remains relatively unchanged (53% and 66%, respectively). Monthly consumption rates and occasions of being drunk in the past 30-days in 2009 also remain unchanged among all students; however, 8th graders did show a slight decline in 30-day consumption. While reaching record low levels, the proportion of students reporting they had been drunk in the past month remains the same from 2008 to 2009 across all three grade levels. According to the 2009 Study incidents of binge drinking, that is having five or more drinks in a row in the last two weeks, declined and reached a record new low level among 8th graders – less than one in ten (8%) of 8th graders reports binge drinking, 18% of 10th graders, and 25% of 12th graders.
It goes without saying that we'd all like the numbers to be zero for every category. We are pleased that The Century Council's point of sale programs such as the '65% Campaign' and the recent 'We Don't Serve Teens' initiative, as well as our continuing focus on middle school kids and their parents through our Ask Listen Learn program, are having a positive impact. We will continue to do more and encourage others to as well. Say 'yes' to a healthy lifestyle and 'no' to underage drinking.
Drunk driving statistics and facts
Many people are now thinking of Thanksgiving, family gatherings and turkey feasts, but for some this holiday also means a lot of driving. In 2008, there were 502 traffic fatalities during the Thanksgiving weekend, including 179 (or 36%) drunk driving fatalities.
On the eve of this holiday The Century Council has released its annual summary of alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The report presents the latest available state-by-state as well as trend data in easy to read graphs.
In 2008 historic low levels of drunk driving fatalities, that is fatalities involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of .08 or higher, were reported overall and among persons under 21 years of age. Since the inception of The Century Council in 1991, drunk driving has declined 26% nationally, and among persons under 21 the decline has been even more significant, decreasing 48%. Unfortunately, the median BAC level among drinking drivers in fatal crashes remains at .16, twice the legal limit, and hardcore drunk drivers continue account for an unequal proportion of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities. In 2008, hardcore drunk drivers were responsible for 68% of the alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities, and drivers with a BAC of .15 or higher in fatal crashes were nine times more likely to be repeat offenders than drivers with no alcohol.
The Century Council has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking – two of society’s top safety concerns – and will continue to support the enactment of comprehensive drunk driving legislation. Much progress has been made over the past 18 years in terms of drunk driving. While The Century Council cannot claim sole responsibility for these significant reductions, The Century Council has been a leader in reaching these record low levels. We hope the information presented in the report will serve as a useful reference tool in the fight to eliminate drunk driving this holiday and in the coming year.
Underage drinking linked to future alcohol abuse
An article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights a recent study linking underage drinking to a greater propensity towards future alcohol abuse, especially among those already pre-disposed towards alcohol dependency.
With our Ask. Listen. Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix program, we seek to start a conversation among middle-school students, with each other and with their parents, about the dangers of underage drinking. We also emphasize that this is a dialogue that must extend through high school and on to college.
The Century Council has long believed that parents wield the power to influence their kids to say “yes” to a healthy lifestyle and “no” to underage drinking.
Check out our Ask Listen Learn website for tips on talking with kids about alcohol.