Surgeon General David Satcher to Serve as Honorary Chair of Alcohol Awareness Month

National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence
Sunday, 1 November 1998

David Satcher, MD, PhD, Surgeon General of the United States, will serve as honorary chair of the 13th annual Alcohol Awareness Month in April 1999 which will focus on binge drinking with the simple message that "Drinking Too Much Too Fast Can Kill You."

"As honorary chair of Alcohol Awareness Month, I look forward to helping increase public understanding of the serious public health consequences of underage and binge drinking. Among teenagers, alcohol is the drug of choice and the drug most likely to be associated with injury or death," said Dr. Satcher. I want to encourage all Americans to commit and work towards a healthy, alcohol-free adolescence for every child."

Alcohol Awareness Month, sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) since 1987, encourages local communities to focus on America's most intractable drug problem among youth. A 1997 survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health indicated that one in five college students binge drinks frequently, a percentage that has increased slightly since 1993 despite several highly publicized alcohol poisoning deaths and incidents of alcohol-related fatal injury on campuses throughout the country. High school seniors also binge drink in alarming numbers. According to the federal government, the percentage of seniors downing five or more drinks in a row in the last two weeks rose from 27.5% in 1993 to 31.3% last year.

Kits to help communities observe Alcohol Awareness Month will again be available from NCADD for $10 to cover production and distribution costs. They will include a brochure and poster that warn "Drinking Too Much Too Fast Can Kill You," and easily reproduced press materials and activities for grassroots organizers on and off college campuses. Many of the materials also will be available free of charge in January 1998 on the internet at www.ncadd.org by clicking on "Awareness Activities."

For more information, or to contact National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, see their website at: www.ncadd.org