Wellness Center to sponsor Alcohol Screening Day
The Utah State University Wellness Center, in conjunction with the Student Counseling Center, is sponsoring National Alcohol Screening Day this Thursday.
Fifty college students across the nation die each year from alcohol abuse, “and our university is not immune to it,” said Jana Carling of the Wellness Center in a speech to students Wednesday.
“We haven’t had a death on our campus yet,” she said, “but we’ve had a lot of people come really close.”
Alcohol abuse is often referred to as binge drinking, defined as more than five drinks a day for a man, and four for a woman, Carling said. Alcohol abuse is apparent when alcohol use starts to interfere with one or two of the five areas of life (social, physical, emotional/mental, financial, spiritual), Carling said.
According to a recent survey by the Wellness Center, 80 percent of USU students do not use alcohol, Carling said. However, she noted, of the 20 percent who do, 40 percent are binge drinkers. Nationally, three people die daily from binge drinking because of quick intoxication of the body, Carling said, and one college student per week dies from at-risk drinking.
“Alcohol is a poison or toxin to your body,” Carling said. “Once it’s in the bloodstream, it’s bathing all the body systems.”
Nationally there are about 10 million underage drinkers, according to a CBS News video shown by Carling. At USU, when an underaged drinker is caught, the Wellness Center calls the student’s parents, Carling said. If it’s a first offense and the individual is not endangering anyone, they have the option of attending an alcohol education course or having their parents notified. Parents are always called for second-time offenders, Carling said.
“For most people, it sucks to pay a fine,” Carling said, “but calling their parents is the icing on the cake.”
Eighty percent of USU students are affected by “second-hand binging,” Carling said.
Second-hand binge effects are what happens to non-binge drinkers by those who drink, Carling said. Some examples Carling stated were being insulted or humiliated, pushed, hit or assaulted, experiencing unwanted sexual advances, having sleep or study interrupted or having to take care of a drunk student.
Carling said by implementing the “Zero-1-3 Plan,” students can learn to drink responsibly. The zero means don’t drink at all, Carling said. Thirty percent of all adults do not drink, she said. One stands for one drink an hour, Carling said, and is a scale to monitor moderate drinking. The three, Carling said, is no more than three drinks a day and never every day.
It takes the liver one hour to get rid of half an ounce of alcohol, Carling said, and the outer area is the first part of the brain to be affected. This area controls vision, judgment, depth perception and motor skills, Carling said. With more drinks, more vital parts of the brain are affected. Eight to 12 beers can affect the heartbeat, breathing and the flow of the digestive juices, Carling said.
According to a survey form Harvard School of Public Health, problems like missing a class, engaging in unplanned sexual activity and regretting something one has done increase with frequent alcohol use. Carling said she knows students at USU who are taking only three credits because they can’t handle anything more – “the alcohol is controlling them.”
Carling is the Prevention Specialist at the Student Wellness Center. She said her job is to educate students on the ill effects of alcohol and how to prevent them.
The screening Thursday will be held in the Taggart Student Center, Room 335 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Wellness Center at 797-1010.