It is a proven fact that drinking and driving is not only dangerous to the foolhardy, selfish and intoxicated driver, but also to the passengers in the car and other vehicles and pedestrians who have the unfortunate luck of being in close distance to the idiot or idiots who think they can handle their drink without any dire consequences.
But are consumers of alcohol aware of a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) that states almost four per cent of deaths worldwide are alcohol-related?
According to the study published last Friday, titled Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health, there are approximately 2.5 million deaths every year around the world that are alcohol-related – more than AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), or violence.
The report also states that alcohol is a factor in 60 types of diseases and injuries, with consumption of alcohol being the cause of alcoholic psychosis (abnormal condition of the mind), alcohol dependence syndrome, alcohol abuse, alcoholic polyneuropathy (malfunction of the nerves), alcoholic cardiomyopathy (weakening of the heart muscle), alcoholic gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining), liver cirrhosis (irreversible scarring of the liver), oesophageal varices (dilated sub-mucosal veins in the lower esophagus), and chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).
Non-users and families of alcohol users can also suffer “due to economic harm caused by the drinker’s actions,” the report warned.
While reading the report, I was reminded of a 2006 accident which caused the deaths of four individuals, a mother and her three daughters, age 13, nine and six, near Slave Lake. Habitual drunk Raymond Charles Yellowknee caused the accident.
Yellowknee was drunk and stole a vehicle, and proceeded to crash it into another car carrying Misty Chalifoux, a 28-year-old mother, and her three children, while trying to evade RCMP as they gave chase.
One can only imagine what would have happened if alcohol wasn’t so readily available to chronic drunkards like Yellowknee.
