Study Links Student-Alcohol Deaths By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A study showing 1,400 college students are killed each year in alcohol-related accidents should change the views of people who see drinking on campus as little more than a rite of passage, researchers and university officials said Tuesday. The federally appointed task force that issued the report plans to distribute the study to college presidents, along with findings about which anti-drinking strategies work and which don't. General campaigns warning of the dangers of alcohol have not been effective, researchers said. They said it is better to teach students to resist peer pressure, show them how alcohol may interfere with academic goals and strictly enforce minimum age laws. Task force members stressed a need for colleges and communities to work together to fight what they called the "culture of drinking" at U.S. colleges. "All you have to do is look at a couple of cable television channels who cover spring break where endless groups of drunken students get up and say `I'm having the greatest time here' and then you recognize on the basis of these statistics what the fallout of the great time is," said the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame and the task force co-chairman. The study by the Task Force on College Drinking estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking. Motor vehicle fatalities were the most common form of deaths caused by alcohol. The statistics included college students killed in car accidents if the students had alcohol in their blood, even if the level was below the legal limit. Students who died in other alcohol-related accidents, such as falls and drownings, were included. Those who died as a result of homicides or suicides were not. "This study provides alarming evidence of the devastating impact that college alcohol abuse is having on students, campuses and communities," said Education Secretary Rod Paige. "The statistics are sobering — and we must work to change the culture of acceptance of high-risk behavior as a rite of passage." The task force of researchers, college presidents and students was convened in 1998 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites). Heavy drinking is believed to be more of a problem among college students than with nonstudents the same age. A 2000 Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) survey found that 41 percent of full-time students aged 18-22 reported that, within a month of the survey, they had had five or more drinks on at least one occasion. That figure was 35.9 percent for nonstudents or part-time students. The same survey found 62 percent of full-time college students had a drink in the previous month, compared to 50.8 percent of their peers who were not full-time students. Task force members said the study was the most detailed look ever at the consequences of college student drinking. Researchers integrated various databases and survey results to reach their findings. Chief researcher Ralph Hingson of the Boston University School of Public Health said he believes the estimates are more likely to be too conservative than overstated. "I think actually getting the numbers out will help the public understand that this is a very large problem, perhaps a larger problem than people might have otherwise thought," he said. Other studies have explored trends in college drinking. A recent Harvard study, for example, found that more students are abstaining from alcohol, but levels of binge drinking — having at least four or five drinks at a sitting — are the same as in the early 1990s. University of Rhode Island president Robert Carothers, a task force member, said the new study will help colleges target prevention programs to specific areas, notably fraternities and sororities. "Some time during the last 20 or 30 years, fraternities shifted their focus to having alcohol being the center of their culture, in fact in many cases, the reason for being," he said. He said that focus on drinking has "damaged the lives of many fine young people." "If we want to maintain the fraternity system — and there are some good reasons to suggest we should — we will need to help that system deal with the problem of alcohol abuse," he said. ___ On the Net: Task Force on College Drinking: http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov Home: Victory Over Addiction International, Inc.
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