A Call for Action on Problem Drinking

Teenagers account for nearly 20% of the alcohol consumed in the United States every year, while excessive drinking by adults accounts for another 30%, according to a study to be issued today.

“If half of all alcohol consumption is a product of misuse and abuse, we have a real problem on our hands,” said epidemiologist Susan E. Foster of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, who led the study in today’s Journal of the American Medical Assn.

“The implications are that the alcohol industry has an economic interest in both, and that interest is at odds with public health,” she said.

The industry responded quickly, contending that the study has serious flaws in its methodology and that Foster’s estimate of teenage drinking is nearly double that reported by the government.

An industry spokesman also questioned the study’s definition of abuse -- anyone consuming more than two drinks a day.

“Illegal underage drinking and alcohol abuse in any amount is a serious problem, but [Foster] does no one any good by repeatedly playing fast and loose with the data,” said Dr. Peter H. Cressy, president and chief executive of the Distilled Spirits Council.

Regardless of the exact figures, underage drinking “is a real problem that we need to address correctively, in the family and in the community,” said Dr. Ting-Kai Li, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

“Is this something new? No, it is not. Is it increasing? I don’t know. “I think it doesn’t matter whether it is increasing or decreasing. It is an important problem that we must address.”

Foster and her colleagues released a similar report a year ago that said underage drinking accounted for 25% of alcohol consumption.

She said Tuesday in an interview that the group had erred in that study, overestimating underage drinking because youths were overrepresented in the federal surveys it relied on.

“We’ve spent the better part of a year getting it right and we are now confident of our findings,” she said.

Foster also said the team’s new estimates were very conservative.

The surveys that supplied the data did not include high school dropouts, young people in the military, the homeless and the institutionalized, groups that are known to exhibit heavy alcohol consumption.

Drinking among teenagers is a severe problem, not only because it is illegal, but also because it can damage the brain, interfering with mental and social development.

Individuals who begin drinking before age 15 are four times as likely to become alcoholics as those who wait until they are adults, studies have shown.

Three former U.S. surgeons general -- Drs. Julius Richmond, Antonia Novello and David Satcher -- joined with the Columbia researchers Tuesday in a nationwide call for action by the alcohol industry, parents and the public health community.

Among other actions, they called on the industry to endow an independent foundation to curb underage drinking, as well as excessive drinking by adults; include information about the dangers of underage and excessive drinking on labels, as is now done for cigarettes; and include the nutritional content of products, including calories, on the labels.