Alcohol Abuse

Re “Sobering Statistics,” Valley Edition editorials, Feb. 13.

Kudos for writing about the hard truths of early disability and mortality for Latinos in Los Angeles County from alcohol dependence. Thanks also for citing the paucity of publicly funded treatment programs not only for Latinos, but also for all ethnic groups.

Unfortunately, alcohol dependence, as revealed in “The Burden of Disease in Los Angeles County: A Study of the Patterns of Morbidity and Mortality in the County Population,” produced by the county Department of Health Services and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, is also the No. 2 countywide cause for early disability among our nearly 10 million residents. Only heart disease ranks higher, but not by far.

Your aware readers can read between the lines and see how [alcohol abuse in] our lifestyles and communities is implicated in many of the [other] leading causes of “disability-adjusted life years”: homicide / violence, depression, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, stroke, lung cancer, emphysema, motor vehicle crashes, poisoning, Alzheimer’s / other dementia, HIV/AIDS, cirrhosis, nutritional / endocrine, self-inflicted injury, other drug use, asthma, breast cancer, and inflammatory cardiac.

What is needed is for the alcohol control movement to win the sorts of victories and changes in social mores that the tobacco control movement has won.

RAY CHAVIRA

National Board Member

Latino Council on

Alcohol and Tobacco

Palmdale