ALCOHOL AND DEATH AN ON- GOING PARTNERSHIP
FROM: John Underwood Director, American Athletic Institute
TO: ALL COACHES AND ATHLETIC DIRECTORS
To help you realize the magnitude of alcohol related problems in our society, check out ”Mortality Attributable to Harmful Drinking in the United States, 2000″ which was published in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.
Although alcohol has been associated with death from a variety of causes, there had been no studies on the numbers of deaths in the U.S. attributable to harmful alcohol use. The investigators estimated the prevalence of alcohol use from the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service’s National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
An estimated 63,718 deaths were attributable to harmful drinking in the U.S. in 2000. Of these deaths, 45,988 were to males (4 percent of all deaths among males) and 17,730 were to females (1.5 percent of all deaths among females).
So, imagine, that 5.5% of all deaths are at the hands of what is in your hand…
ALCOHOL
- It is clear that these problems begin in youth and sport is not immune to such issues.
- To the contrary, athletes are at higher risk for problem use than non- athletes.
- To lose one young life to alcohol use is ONE too many.
- Never give up… Never give in… Never underestimate the power you have, as a coach, to impact “The Life of an Athlete.”