Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 18 January 2018
Science panel backs lower drunken driving threshold

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) —
A prestigious scientific
panel is recommending
that states significantly
lower their drunken driv-
ing thresholds as part of
a blueprint to eliminate
the “entirely preventable”
10,000 alcohol-impaired
driving deaths in the United
States each year.
The U.S. government-com-
missioned, 489-page report
by a panel of the National
Academies of Sciences,
Engineering and Medi-
cine released Wednesday
throws the weight of the sci-
entific body behind lower-
ing the blood-alcohol con-
centration threshold from
0.08 to 0.05. All states have
0.08 thresholds. A Utah law
passed last year that low-
ers the state’s threshold to
0.05 doesn’t go into effect
until Dec. 30.
The amount of alcohol re-
quired to reach 0.05 would
depend on several factors,
including the person’s size
and whether the person In this Dec. 29, 2011 file photo, a car approaches a sobriety checkpoint set up along a busy street in Albuquerque, N.M.
has recently eaten. Associated Press
A 150-pound man might be
over the 0.05 limit after two toxicated to discourage represent the “vast major- table,” the report said. have adopted the 0.05
beers, while a 120-pound binge drinking, and putting ity” of alcohol-impaired From the early 1980s to the threshold lower. In Europe,
woman could exceed it af- limits on alcohol marketing driving deaths, the Dis- early 2000s, there was signif- the share of traffic deaths
ter a single drink, accord- while funding anti-alcohol tilled Spirits Council said in icant progress as the result attributable to drunken
ing to the American Bev- campaigns similar to those a statement. The council of an increase in the drink- driving was reduced by
erage Institute, a national against smoking. said it also doesn’t support ing age to 21, decreases in more than half within 10
restaurant group. All the proposals are likely the report’s recommenda- the blood-alcohol thresh- years after the standard
The panel also recom- to draw fierce opposition tions for “tax increases and old, and other measures, was dropped, the National
mended that states sig- from the alcohol and res- advertising bans, which will the report said. But since Transportation Safety Board
nificantly increase alcohol taurant industries. have little or no impact on then, progress has stagnat- said in 2013. The safety
taxes and make alcohol The beverage institute took traffic safety.” ed and recently has begun board has also recom-
less conveniently avail- out full-page newspaper The report points out that to reverse. Action to ad- mended the 0.05 threshold.
able, including reducing ads opposing Utah’s new “alcohol-impaired driving dress drunken driving can’t Alcoholic beverages have
the hours and days alcohol law that featured a fake remains the deadliest and wait for the advent of self- changed significantly over
is sold in stores, bars and mugshot under a large costliest danger on U.S. driving cars immune to the the past 25 years. “They
restaurants. headline reading, “Utah: roads,” accounting for 28 lures of a cold beer or a fine are more affordable, of far
Research suggests a dou- Come for vacation, leave percent of traffic deaths. wine — it will take too long greater variety, and more
bling of alcohol taxes could on probation.” Each day, 29 people in the for autonomous vehicles to widely advertised and
lead to an 11 percent re- The recommendation in U.S. die in alcohol-related replace all the human-driv- promoted than in earlier
duction in traffic crash the academies’ report for crashes and many more en machines on the road, periods,” the report said.
deaths, the report said. It lowering the BAC thresh- are injured. Forty percent of said the panel’s chairman, The lack of consistency in
also calls for cracking down old would “do nothing to those killed are people oth- Steven Teutsch, a senior fel- serving sizes and the com-
on sales to people under deter” repeat offenders er than the drunken driver. low for health policy and bination of alcohol with
21 or who are already in- and high BAC drivers, who Rural areas are dispropor- economics at the University caffeine and energy drinks
tionately affected. In 2015, of Southern California in Los make it harder for drinkers
48 percent of drunken driv- Angeles. to estimate their level of im-
ing fatalities occurred in “In the meantime, we have pairment.
rural areas. The report says 10,000 people a year dying The report was commis-
many strategies have been and we ought to do some- sioned by the National
effective to prevent drunk- thing about it,” he said. Highway Traffic Safety Ad-
en driving, but “a coordi- The report cites studies that ministration, which asked
nated multilevel approach show the United States lags the academies to deter-
across multiple sectors will behind other high-income mine which strategies for
be required to accelerate countries in preventing reducing drunken driv-
change.” drunken driving fatalities. ing have been proven
“The problem isn’t intrac- More than 100 countries effective.q