Half of local adults drink at levels above low-risk drinking guidelines: Report

Nearly half of all adults in Thunder Bay drink at levels higher than Ontario’s low-risk drinking guidelines.

The fallout can be severe, leading to injuries, job loss, family problems, chronic disease and even death in some cases, say organizers of the Let’s Start Forum, held Thursday as a way to begin discussions on how to deal with the implications and find solutions to lower drinking levels in the city.

Janet DeMille, the acting medical officer of health at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, said the numbers speak for themselves.

“It’s really quite alarming and quite concerning in many ways. We know there are more people using alcohol in various levels,” DeMille said.

According to the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, sticking to low-risk drinking guidelines means no more than 10 drinks in a week for women, 15 for men. It also means men drinking no more than three drinks on most days for men and two for women.

“We see lots of evidence in our community of the harms, whether it’s acute harms or long-term chronic disease issues related to that, as well as the social harms and the harms more broadly to our community.”

Thunder Bay isn’t alone, DeMille said.

Why the rates are higher is the question of the day. There are a lot of influences, but often it depends on the age of the individual and their circumstances.

Drinking is becoming more acceptable in student ranks, at both high-school and post-secondary.

It’s a changing culture, DeMille said.

“Using alcohol in excessive amounts is more expected, more common. Some of the reasons for that is there may not be other alternatives for engaging youth and young adults.”

One suggestion made was teaching youngsters the dangers associated with alcohol use at an earlier age, as early as 12 and 13.

The object of Thursday’s forum was to hear from a variety of stakeholders during the morning session, then spend the afternoon devising solutions to help change attitudes toward alcohol in the community, different initiatives that could be enhanced or begun in the next three to five years and determining priorities for the next steps to take.

Cynthia Olsen, the city’s drug strategy co-ordinator, said it’s not just the acute needs that needs attention, things like binge drinking and chronic alcoholism.

“There is a huge large cohort of individuals in our community that will have long-term health consequences as a result of what we may actually consider just social, normal drinking,” Olsen said.

She added many people don’t see themselves in the problem-drinking category.

“I’m hoping the message today is that we are all part of this, so how do we change the social norms, how do we change some of the messaging in our community?”

The report shows one in five adults 19 and older report heavy binge drinking at least one a month in the past year. That 3.2 percentage points higher than the Ontario average. Across the province, daily drinking amongst women is on the rise. As far as students go, 58.9 per cent of students in grades 7 to 12 reported past-year consumption of alcohol, versus the 49.5 per cent provincial average. More than a third (37.9 per cent) of high-school students admitted binge drinking at least once in the past month, four per cent admitting drinking in driving at least once in the past year.

The Report on Alcohol Use, Harms & Potential Actions in Thunder Bay District is available online at bit.ly/letsstarttbay

Follow Leith Dunick on Twitter: @LeithDunick