Project

In
Health
Members:
Guevarra, kimmerly roch m.
Pascual, ian grey b.
Hadap, nika rose
Bubong, ibtisam b.
Dulce, ennzo nayr s.
muÑoz, rienz angelo r.
quilaton, Samantha kae f.

issues
about
Cigarettes
and

alcohol

‘
ALCOHOL DRINKING

“BINGE DRINKING”
 • Alcohol can rewire the teenage brain
Binge drinking may harm a teen’s brain now — and forever.

What few people realize is that binge drinking poses many risks that go well beyond
getting drunk and acting irresponsibly. That’s why an organization of doctors has just issued a
new report laying out those risks. It appeared in the August 30 issue of Pediatrics.
Teens are most likely to binge drink. Some teens drink because they have low self-esteem or
think it will make them feel happier, the new Pediatrics report states. Others are impulsive. They
are looking for new experiences. Teens also drink when many of their friends do.
In adults, binge drinking means downing at least four drinks in a row, if you’re a woman
five in a row if you’re a man. A drink is one beer, one glass of wine or one shot of hard liquor.
For adolescents, it takes less alcohol to constitute a binge. Downing just three drinks in a row is
binging for boys 9 to 13 or for any girl under 17. Among boys 14 to 15, it’s four drinks.
Binge drinking is dangerous
“We live in a world where many adults and some teenagers drink alcohol,” says Vivian Faden.
She’s a scientist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, or NIAAA, in
Rockville, Md. “So it is normal to be curious about alcohol,” she concedes. But there are good
reasons why it makes sense to hold off drinking alcohol “until the teenage years are over,” she
says.Binge drinking leads people to get very drunk. Normally, the liver helps remove alcohol
from the blood. But when the liver cannot keep up, the alcohol then circulates through the
bloodstream and brain while waiting to be removed by the liver. This is when a person becomes
drunk, a condition known as intoxication. About half of high school seniors have been drunk at
least once, according to recent research. Some 10 percent of eighth graders have too.

THE CAUSE OF
ALCOHOL ADDICTION
 • Alcohol Addiction Poses Grave Dangers To Your Health

In today’s society, it isn’t unusual to consume alcohol for pleasure or relaxation. Often,
people enjoy a glass of wine with a meal or a beer while in the company of friends. While this
type of “normal” use of alcohol does not present a problem for most, it can potentially become
excessive for others and result in what is known as alcohol addiction alcohol abuse. Alcohol
addiction is defined as a pattern of drinking that can affect social and emotional responsibilities
and even result in legal problems. When a person abuses alcohol, his or her drinking habits can
harm his or her health or cause injury to the addict or others. Eventually, if left unchecked,
alcohol addiction can transition into alcoholism, which is also known as alcohol dependence.
Alcoholism is a disease in which a person develops a physical dependency or addiction to
alcohol.
When friends or family members suspect that someone who they care for is abusing
alcohol, they will want to take action so that the suspected abuser can get the necessary help.
When there is suspicion of alcohol addiction, certain clear indicators typically present
themselves. A common sign is when an individual neglects responsibilities such as a job, school
work or family obligations. An alcohol addict also uses alcohol in situations when it is unsafe to
do so such as on a boat or when driving a vehicle. Another sign of alcohol abuse is when a
person regularly uses alcohol as a method to relieve stress.

BALTIMORE INCIDENT

• Could reducing alcohol access solve Baltimore's murder problem?

 We must have a serious conversation about violent crime and how it’s often fueled by
alcohol. Only then can we have conversations about equitable communities (walkable streets,
trash control, affordable housing, education, and jobs and job training).

Murder clusters around alcohol outlets. Each additional alcohol outlet in a census tract
raises the homicide rate 1.6 percent. Nearly half of all homicides — 47 percent — are caused by
excessive drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This
means that the murder wouldn’t have happened if the perpetrator hadn’t been drinking. Apply
CDC’s calculations to Baltimore, and 161 of the 343 homicides in 2017 were caused by
excessive drinking.How did we get here? Until recently, Baltimore had a state standard of no
more than one alcohol outlet for every 1,000 people, even though the city has in double that
number of outlets and some of our neighborhoods have one outlet for every 20 people. Often, the
neighborhoods most saturated with alcohol establishments are low income and African
American.

City leaders and communities have an opportunity to reduce crime in our neighborhoods
by lowering the number of alcohol outlets. To their credit, the city recently adopted zoning
provisions with the potential for removing liquor stores in residential areas and ensuring more
accountability for alcohol outlets’ operating practices. But Baltimore won’t be able to enforce
these provisions unless all stakeholders — the mayor, state legislature, liquor board, City
Council, and the communities — cooperate to establish an effective citizen review process.
While these new provisions are good, the city can’t wait two to four years for these changes to
take effect. People are dying in our streets. Already in 2018, we’ve lost 11 people to violent
crime. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.”

SMOKING CIGARETTES

STRICT SMOKING BAN IN THE PHILIPPINES

 • Duterte Orders Strict Smoking Ban in Philippines, and Asks Citizens to Help

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte, who has overseen a deadly campaign to

eradicate drug use in the Philippines, has now ordered a strict public ban on smoking and called
on citizens to help the local authorities apprehend smokers.
The executive order, signed this week and made public on Thursday, forbids the use of
tobacco, including electronic cigarettes, in all public spaces, even sidewalks. It also prohibits
anyone under 18 from “using, selling or buying cigarettes or tobacco products.”
More than a quarter of Filipinos smoke, according to a 2015 World Health Organization
report, including 11 percent of minors.
The nationwide measure, known as Executive Order 26, is similar to the near universal
smoking ban Mr. Duterte put in place in Davao City in 2002, when he was the city’s mayor. A
former smoker, Mr. Duterte quit cigarettes and drinking decades ago, when he was found to have
two rare conditions, Barrett’s esophagus and Buerger’s disease.
According to the new order, tobacco cannot be sold within 100 meters, or about 330 feet,
of schools, playgrounds or anywhere children might gather. Municipalities must also designate
smoking areas that are far from these places, and away from elevators, stairwells, gas stations,
health centers and wherever food is prepared. “No smoking” signs are to be posted in all public
places.
The order also called on civilians to join a “Smoke Free Task Force to help carry out the
provisions of this order” and apprehend and charge violators.
Calling for citizens to enforce the ban raises the specter of vigilantes’ carrying out their
own interpretation of Mr. Duterte’s strict prohibitions, as was reported during his tenure as
mayor of Davao dating to the 1980s.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE LUNGS

• Two lung diseases killed 3.6 million in 2015

 PARIS, France — The two most common chronic lung diseases claimed 3.6 million lives
worldwide in 2015, according to a tally published Thursday in The Lancet Respiratory
Medicine.About 3.2 million people succumbed that year to chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD), caused mainly by smoking and pollution, while 400,000 people died from
asthma. COPD is a group of lung conditions — including emphysema and bronchitis — that
make it difficult to breathe. Asthma is twice as prevalent, but COPD is eight times more deadly,
the study found.
Both diseases can be treated affordably, but many sufferers are often left undiagnosed,
misdiagnosed or under-treated. COPD was the fourth-ranked cause of death worldwide in 2015,
according to the World Health Organization, behind heart disease (nine million), stroke (six
million) and lower respiratory infections (just over 3.2 million). Researchers led by Theo Vos, a
professor at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington,
analyzed data from 188 countries to estimate, in each one, the number of cases and deaths
annually from 1990 to 2015. COPD prevalence and death rates declined over that period, but the
overall numbers increased — with nearly 12 percent more deaths — because of population
growth.
For asthma, prevalence went up by almost 13 percent to 358 million people worldwide,
but the number of deaths dropped by more than a quarter. The countries with the highest
concentration of people disabled by COPD in 2015 were Papua New Guinea, India, Lesotho and
Nepal, the study showed. For asthma, the biggest disease burdens were found in Afghanistan, the
Central African Republic, Fiji, Kiribati, Lesotho, Papula New Guinea and Swaziland. High-
income Asian nations were least affected by COPD, along with countries in central Europe, north
Africa, the Middle East and western Europe. Central and eastern Europe, along with China,
Japan and Italy, had among the lowest rates of asthma. Smoking is known to aggravate asthma,
as are allergens, whether indoors or in nature.

HIGHER SMOKING RATE IN MILLENIAL

GENENRATION
 • Higher Smoking Rate Among Millennials

According to the survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Swedish

Match, the highest rates of smoking are among 18- to 34-year-olds (23 percent), just ahead
of 35- to 54-year-olds (22 percent) and also higher than those age 55 and older (17 percent).
In addition, 21 percent of the Americans surveyed say they are current smokers,
with 23 percent saying they have quit and 42 percent saying they have never had a
cigarette, a figure that jumps to 54 percent among college graduates. Among those who
quit smoking, 56 percent said they did so due to fear of health complications, with 32
percent giving up cigarettes due to cost.
The findings are part of a national poll of more than 1,000 American adults that was
conducted from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.
Of those who do smoke, only 15 percent say they hid/hide the habit from their co-workers.
However, 36 percent of smokers aged 18 to 34 said they conceal their cigarette use at
work.
"This survey underscores the significant generational and educational differences in
Americans' attitudes toward smoking," said Chris Lemmon, senior brand manager at
Swedish Match. "Curiously, the smoking rates among Millennials — the generation that
has grown up with anti-smoking messages — are actually higher than older age groups,
and yet one in three of them hide their cigarette use at work, which likely speaks to the
stigma still associated with smoking."