Pubdate: Wed, 26 Feb 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Donald G. Mcneil, Jr.
Webpage: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/national/26ALCO.html

LIQUOR INDUSTRY AND SCIENTISTS AT ODDS OVER ALCOHOL STUDY

A study of excessive drinking that appears in today's issue of The Journal 
of the American Medical Association has started a saloon brawl of its own 
between the authors and the liquor industry, with each side accusing the 
other of manipulating the figures.

The study, by an institute affiliated with Columbia University, concludes 
that half the alcohol purchased in the United States is sold to teenagers 
or people who drink too much.

The study, which is the journal's lead article, is couched more as a 
political statement than as a dry recitation of numbers. It ends with an 
attack on the liquor industry, calling for higher taxes, antidrinking 
publicity campaigns and tougher sentences for those who sell to minors.

It is accompanied by an editorial about the dangers of excessive drinking 
and comes with endorsements from three former surgeons general and from 
Betty Ford, the former first lady who founded the Betty Ford Center after 
seeking help for her own drinking problem.

But even before it was released, mistakes in its methods began to appear. 
The authors defended their conclusions, saying the mistakes were minor.

The study comes from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 
which is headed by Joseph A. Califano Jr., the secretary of health, 
education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter.

Last year, a study from the same source had to be withdrawn and 
recalculated after a statistical error was discovered that doubled the 
estimate of how much of the nation's alcohol was drunk by teenagers.

In 1994, a study by the center said that 28 percent of adults on welfare 
were impaired by drugs or alcohol; the Department of Health and Human 
Services called it "seriously flawed" and said a more accurate estimate was 
4.5 percent.

The center's definition of "excessive drinking" in the new study, anything 
over two drinks a day, has been questioned. And the study, which blends 
figures from several large federal surveys, also appears to use an 
incorrect measure for how the government calculates the alcohol in a mixed 
drink.

The authors said that their calculations actually used the correct figure, 
1.5 ounces, and that the 1.2-ounce figure cited in the article was merely a 
typographical error.

This year's study has been vigorously attacked by a liquor industry 
lobbying group, which accused its authors of "manipulating data for 
sensational headlines."

The authors denied that, and said they checked their calculations with the 
federal agencies that produced the raw data and submitted them to a 
prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.

However, late yesterday, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention said the study's authors took a C.D.C. survey of high-school 
drinking and "inappropriately" assumed that everyone from 12-year-olds in 
junior high school to 20-year-old college juniors had the same drinking rate.

The study's lead author, Susan E. Foster, defended her conclusions, saying 
the amount of teenage drinking was probably even worse than she had 
estimated, because other surveys had found that college students drank more 
than high school students and because the C.D.C. survey left out the 
military, high school dropouts and the homeless.

The alcohol consumed in the United States beyond two drinks a day by 
adults, plus all drinks consumed by drinkers under 21, adds up to 50.1 
percent of all the alcohol consumed, the study concluded.

Ms. Foster said the study's definition of excessive drinking as more than 
two drinks a day was generous because some federal recommendations suggest 
only one drink a day for women and people over 65.

The liquor lobbying group, the Distilled Spirits Council, argued that more 
than two drinks a day with meals does not necessarily constitute excess and 
said the study's figures could be used to conclude that half of all 
teenagers drink 99 drinks a month, or three drinks a day.

"Half of all 12-year-olds aren't going to school with hangovers," said 
Peter H. Cressy, the council's president.

Ms. Foster said that the Spirits Council used its figures incorrectly, and 
that her study concluded that the half of all teenagers who drink average 
46 drinks a month, more likely to be consumed in binge drinking. She said 
that might be a low estimate.

In language reminiscent of attacks on the tobacco industry a decade ago, 
the center called alcohol "a premier drug of abuse in America" and accused 
the industry of underestimating the damage it does to society and of doing 
little to prevent minors and drunks from buying its products.

Ms. Foster recalled that Mr. Califano, a co-author of the study, had been 
attacked decades ago by the tobacco industry for pointing out the dangers 
of cigarettes.

The editorial accompanying the study pointed out that heavy drinkers are 
also likely to be heavy users of illegal drugs. Antidrug campaigners often 
use a similar argument, implying that marijuana is a gateway to more 
dangerous drugs.

The study said that under-age drinking was beginning earlier, reporting 
that the proportion of children who began drinking by the eighth grade 
increased 33 percent from 1975 to 2001. It also said that a child who 
begins drinking before age 15 is four times as likely to become an 
alcoholic than someone who starts at 21 or later.
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