Pubdate:  Wednesday, February 24, 1999
Source: San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 1999 San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune
Contact:  P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406-0112
Website: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/

STUDY FINDS NONDEPENDENT DRINKERS CAUSE MOST ALCOHOL PROBLEMS AT WORK

TENTON, N.J. - Companies trying to cut productivity losses from
employee drinking may be focusing on the wrong people: Alcoholics
don't cause most alcohol-related work problems, according to a study
of thousands of U.S. workers.

The study, funded by the federal government and a health care philan-
thropy, found the real problem for industry isn't the perennial drunk
sneaking a few swigs on breaks, but the employee who occasionally
overdoes it on work nights and the executive downing a couple drinks
at lunchtime.

And while the three-martini lunch is dying out, managers are three
times more likely (23 percent vs. 8 percent) to sometimes drink during
working hours than hourly workers.

"Probably the most surprising finding was that the majority of
alcohol-related problems were attributable to light and moderate
drinkers," said Jonathon Howland, a co-author of the study who is a
professor at Boston University School of Public Health.

While 80 percent of drinkers are not dependent on alcohol, the authors
found this group causes 60 percent of alcohol-related work performance
problems, meaning those considered problem drinkers cause only 40
percent of the trouble.

"It may seem harmless, but an employee who drinks too much champagne
at a Sunday evening wedding, consumes a few too many beers during
Monday Night Football, or has a drink at lunch could be costing your
company money," the authors warn.

Often those workers aren't hung over after the occasional night of ex-
cessive drinking, but they may feel exhausted and have trouble
concentrating. That's because the competing stimulant and sedative
effects of alcohol disrupt the deep, REM sleep that comes early in the
morning.

Howland noted 21 percent of the workers interviewed - and 31 percent
of those who consider their jobs dangerous - reported being injured or
en-dangered, having to re-do work or cover for a co-worker, or
needing to work harder or longer due to drinking by others.

Those and other findings from "New Perspectives for Worksite Alcohol
Strategies," one of the largest work site alcohol studies ever,
convinced the authors that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism may have underestimated the cost of lost productivity due
to alcohol use. The institute's 1995 $27 billion estimate does not
include secondhand effects, for one thing, the authors said.

The study, published in December, was funded by the institute, part of
the National Institutes of Health, and The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, based in Plainsboro, N.J. From 1991 to 1998, the
investigators compiled information covering nearly 14,000 workers
spread across the country at 114 work sites within seven Fortune 500
companies.

The investigators visited many work sites, conducted more than 100
focus groups with employees, talked extensively with some 150 senior
managers at corporation headquarters and other sites, and poured over
7,255 surveys from managers and supervisors and another 6,540 from all
levels of em-ployees at 16 of the work sites.

"The managers' attitude was, 'Yeah, a couple of beers at lunch is not
a problem,' but somehow drinking in the parking lot (on breaks) is a
problem, and the reason is because drinking in the parking lot is seen
as compulsive behavior," Howland said.
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