THE COST OF ALCOHOL www.TheCitizensWhoCare.org Cutting Alcohol's Cost Your boss might want to forget about making you wear that BlackBerry and take away your bourbon instead. Businesses spend big bucks on both the little, addictive wireless e-mail gadgets and programs that screen for and treat problem drinkers. Both make back the cost of investment. But searching for alcohol abusers brings in $2.15 for every dollar spent, compared to a mere $1.62 for keeping workers connected with Blackberrys. In fact, just by surveying employees and offering counseling sessions of 30 minutes or less, employers might be able to put a big dent in the $35 billion that excessive drinking adds to health care coverage annually, according to the George Washington University researchers who came up with the comparison. What is striking is that the GWU researchers don't recommend counseling only alcoholics, who require years of treatment, but also people who aren't addicts but simply drink too much. "Since there are so many more people who drink in hazardous or harmful amounts, about 60% of the costs of alcohol to society are from people who are not dependent," says Eric Goplerud, who heads an alcohol abuse program at GWU called Ensuring Solutions. "There are people who drink even though they have sore stomachs, or drink and get into a fight and get hurt or engage in unprotected sex." Each year, alcohol abuse costs the United States an estimated $185 billion, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But only $26 billion, 14% of the total, comes from direct medical costs or treating alcoholics. Almost half, a whopping $88 billion, comes from lost productivity--a combination of all those hangovers that keep us out of work on Monday mornings, as well as other alcohol-related diseases. People who drink too much and too often are at greater risk for diabetes and several kinds of cancer, according to some studies. "Alcohol is a worthless drug that affects every single cell in your body," says Harris Stratyner, director of addiction recovery services at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Even hair transplants can fail because of the damage, he says. Many alcohol-related health troubles are more immediate--and are delivered with a crash, a thud or a bang. Half of the trauma patients in emergency rooms got there because they hurt themselves after drinking. Drunk driving only accounts for $6 billion worth of motor vehicle accidents, but it causes a third of car crash deaths--resulting in the loss of 13,000 lives per year. The professions where people drink the most include construction, agriculture and manufacturing--all fields that involve a lot of dangerous, heavy machinery. Likely number of problem drinkers Industry # per 1,000 employees Construction and Mining 135 Wholesale 115 Retail 114 Leisure and Hospitality 109 Business and Repair Services 106 Agriculture 106 Transportation and Utilities 96 Finance and Real Estate 92 Manufacturing 90 Government 69 Professional 54 U.S. Average 91 Source: Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems, The George Washington Uniersity Medical Center www.forbes.com/2006/08/22/cx_mh_nightlife06_alcoholism_industry_slide_6.html?thisSpeed=5000 The toll from all the psychiatric effects, injuries and other alcohol-related problems: 85,000 deaths a year. What about those purported health benefits of wine? They top out at no more than five drinks a week for men, and two for women. Among people under 34, those who do not drink actually live longer. Nearly 17 million Americans have a serious problem with alcohol, but only 3 million ever seek out any kind of help. That doesn't count those who should probably cut down some, but whose alcohol use hasn't developed into a full-blown problem. Yet Goplerud sees great reason for hope--and he's not raising the specter of prohibition. (History shows that most of us will not stop drinking entirely.) What Goplerud suggests is to give all employees a simple questionnaire to identify those who are overindulging. Ninety percent of crack users will lie about their drug use, as will just about all users of methamphetamine or PCP. But people who drink are more honest, and a simple questionnaire will turn up 80% of those who have problems. Then, for most, treatment is simple. Of those 17 million problem drinkers, 8 million are alcoholics. For others, a simple counseling session can work wonders. One study showed that if people who had injured themselves in alcohol-related accidents were approached about their drinking by a doctor while they were still in the hospital, they were less likely to become injured again. For those who are dependent, the outlook is bleaker, since scientists understand so little about addiction. Yet many are still helped by treatment. The most recent medical advance that may help alcoholics is Vivitrol, a once-a-month shot produced by Cephalon (nasdaq: CEPH - news - people ) and Alkermes (nasdaq: ALKS - news - people ) that reduced the rate of drinking by 25%, compared to placebo and counseling. Few patients in the study were able to abstain completely. But it is exactly because treatment is so difficult that many advocate intervening earlier--and potentially reaping big economic gains. Says Stratyner: "We could save billions." Source: Problem drinker data from Alcohol Cost Calculator for Business , 2005; Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems, The George Washington University Medical Center. www.forbes.com/2006/08/22/health-drinking-problems_cx_mh_nightlife06_0822costs.html  Think about it! ©20072016, www.TheCitizensWhoCare.org/brookings/costofalcohol.html