Reducing Drinking Related Deaths --
A Public Health Priority
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Supports
Lowering Legal Blood Alcohol Content
Toronto, August 1, 2002,
For immediate release: As we head into another summer long weekend, images
of cottages, partying and alcohol spring to mind, as do impairment, car
accidents, police and tragically far too often, death. To address this
significant public health problem, the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health (CAMH) added its voice today to those advocating for the reduction
of the Criminal Code blood alcohol content (BAC) from 80% mg to 50 mg%.
"The evidence is very strong that reducing the BAC limit will lead
to fewer collisions, injuries and deaths. Evidence shows that driving
skills are impaired and collision risks elevated at BAC levels of 50 mg%.
Reducing the legal limit in the Criminal Code to 50 mg% would be a very
reasonable next step in the effort to educate the public about the hazards
of driving or operating motorized vehicles of any kind after excessive
alcohol consumption," said Dr. Robert Mann, Senior Scientist at CAMH,
who has been conducting research into drinking and driving related injuries
and deaths for the past 18 years.
Alcohol is the leading contributor to deaths on Canada's highways. Over
35,000 deaths involving a drinking driver occurred between 1977 and 1996,
and the number injured may have been over 1,000,000.
It has been estimated that a 50 mg% legal limit could reduce the total
motor vehicle fatalities between 6% and 15%. A BAC level of 50 mg% could
have prevented between 185 and 555 deaths on Canadian roads in 1996 alone.
In taking this position on lowering the legal alcohol limit, CAMH is
supporting the national campaign led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving
(MADD) to lower the BAC limit. This campaign is also supported by several
influential community and health groups including the Canadian Medical
Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, the Council on Drug
Abuse and the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.
CAMH supports other measures to address the problem of drinking and driving
including mandating server training programs to assist all those who serve
alcohol to identify and prevent patrons from consuming excessive alcohol
and using ignition interlock devices for vehicles of convicted drinking
drivers among other proven interventions that are currently used.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a World Health Organization
Centre of Excellence and a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the
University of Toronto, was established in 1998 through the merger of the
Addiction Research Foundation, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the
Donwood Institute and the Queen Street Mental Health Centre.
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Media please contact: Anne Ptasznik, Media Relations Coordinator, 416-595-6015
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1-800-463-6273
