NEWS: The Age - 30/05/07 'Youth drinking habits are risky: report'

Youth drinking habits are risky: report
May 30, 2007 - 4:34PM

One in three young Australians are consuming enough alcohol to put themselves at risk of violence and injury, a new report has found.

The wide-ranging look at youth by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) found young Australians are generally healthy, but are still taking unnecessary risks.

The report examined obesity and exercise among young people, as well as health improvements, education, employment and family.

Alcohol consumption was highlighted as a major area of concern, while the study also revealed high illicit drug use.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said young Australians needed to be aware of the dangers such risks posed to their health and the health of others.

Report co-author Dr Indrani Pieris-Caldwell said more young Australians were drinking amounts that could put them at risk of long-term harm - seven to 11 drinks in a week for men and four to seven for women.

"(In 2001) nine per cent were at risk of long-term harm, it has gone up to 11 per cent."

Dr Pieris-Caldwell said the number of young Australians drinking lesser amounts had fallen slightly, but was still an area of concern.

"With short-term harm in 2001 it was 35 per cent, it seems to be lower in the more recent figures which is 31 per cent."

AMA president Rosanna Capolingua said children as young as 12 were drinking large amounts of alcohol.

"Binge drinking is a really big problem in our young generation at the moment, we're talking about kids down to 12 (years old) ... particularly at risk is the group of 16- to 19-year olds," Dr Capolingua said.

She said binge drinking could lead to acute harm at the time of drinking such as fighting and drink driving.

"There's also a risk of sexual activity and exposure to STI's (sexually transmitted infection) when they've had too much to drink, and there's often also associated drug use."

Dr Capolingua said there also could be long-term effects such as slow brain development.

Young Australians also are taking risks by using illicit drugs, with nearly a quarter having done so.

"We're seeing that our emergency departments are having to cope with a lot of young people who have episodes of psychosis because they have been using what has been so incorrectly termed 'recreational drugs'," she said.

The report also highlighted areas which needed improvement including reducing obesity and increasing health food consumption and exercise among young people.

Dr Capolingua said this problem was not only about lifestyle and eating habits.

"It's a complex social and emotional well-being issue let alone the structural stuff of eating and exercise."

She said the issue needed to be addressed in a positive way.

"So that they maintain their feeling of self-worth but also help them to get on top of the obesity problem."

Dr Pieris-Caldwell said positive health improvements the study found included a decrease in death rates, asthma and melanoma.

"Overall young people are healthy and doing quite well.

The report found injury deaths, usually associated with transport accidents, have fallen by 35 per cent over the last two decades while suicides have also dropped by 40 per cent.

The study also examined education, employment and family as part the report which extended beyond traditional measures of health.

It found the proportion of high school children finishing year 12 has more than doubled since 1980 while more young Australians were gaining post school qualifications.

Community Services Minister Nigel Scullion says the report will be used to shape policy for health, education and employment.

Senator Scullion, who officially launched the 2007 report in Canberra on Wednesday, said it was the third of its kind, which will allow policy makers to compare trends over time.

"The great thing about this report is it's a longitudinal report," he said.

"We can see which areas have been changing well and responding well to policy and what areas need tweaking in policy."

Senator Scullion said the report will be used in a number of policy areas.

"It will inform ministers, who have any responsibilities, whether it's health, education, employment or youth affairs.

"It will enable us to have a far more intuitive and informed appraisal of our current policies."

Senator Scullion said he was particularly surprised by the study's finding that 25 per cent of young people are overweight or obese.

"Some of the fast food outlets, how you label food, the nature of how much fat is in something and how we have to label it, those things have changed and they're appropriate behaviour for government," he said.

But he said families and the community have an important role to play.

"It's about giving families the capacity to be able to educate and to ensure that families have the capacity to provide good advice and intervention."

He said the finding that 42 per cent of teenage mothers smoked during pregnancy was appalling and showed that the government's education policy needed altering.

"I've seen all the education we put out and the policy we put out, clearly it's not cutting."

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TWO police officers, one of them female, who walked into a seething mass of drunken teenagers at an out-of-control, illegal rave party at Kingscliff at the weekend could have been seriously injured or killed, say their colleagues.

The Tweed Heads Police Association said yesterday the party for a Kingscliff High schoolgirl at South Cudgen Creek Reserve on Saturday night, attended by about 350 teens, was further evidence the Tweed desperately needed a boost in manpower. Only last week association spokesman Andrew Eppelstun claimed the region had been "stiffed" yet again after missing an allocation of new constables from the latest police academy graduates.


This party was a prime example of why Sydney should be paying more attention to us, Mr Eppelstun said yesterday. Two police officers cannot make a dent in a situation like that if it turns ugly.

"There is an expectation police could be seriously injured responding to an event that size. When you are `up the butt with alligators' one minute can be a very long time.

Police were called after residents complained about loud music coming from the reserve, and initially only two officers from Kingscliff station attended the party, eventually shutting it down. The teens, many of whom attend Kingscliff High School, were intoxicated.

Yesterday the Daily News viewed an invitation to the party, which was held to celebrate the 16th birthday of a female Kingscliff High student. But the party was anything but "sweet". It is not known whether the party hosts had expected 350 people, but MySpace website users "advertised" the party in the days leading up to the event and yesterday the site was running hot with comments such as, "did u have a good time at the party? I hate the cops so much. They always have to come wreck it ay."

When the police officers arrived on Saturday night some revellers became aggressive and back-up was called from Tweed Heads, four general duties officers and two Target Action Group detectives.

Police spent two hours dispersing the crowd and had to use capsicum spray on one unruly teen.

Mr Eppelstun said the concern about adequate back-up was widely felt by police in the Tweed, saying police deserved to "feel safe and backed-up in the execution of their duties".

"The next LAC (Local Area Command) is Lismore which is one hour away," Mr Eppelstun said. "We need the resources to stand alone, to be independent."

"We can't rely on resources from another LAC if we need them, they may just not be here in time."

"It's different in the city where the next LAC might be five or ten minutes away. In rural areas you can be talking hours before back-up arrives and one minute can be a long time if a situation turns ugly."


Tweed/Byron LAC Superintendent Michael Kenny said "it was a disgrace to hear about so many underage, intoxicated local youths at the party," and that parents need to take more responsibility for their children.

"Parents absolutely need to know where their children are and to check up on them, not just by mobile phone," Supt Kenny said.

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A MURWILLUMBAH schoolgirl says Tweed teens won't stop drinking or throwing wild parties. The Tweed's teen culture has been put under the microscope following a drunken rave party in Kingscliff last weekend. Police officers attempted to break up the party, with a number of the 350-strong crowd, mostly intoxicated teens, turning violent. Talking to the Daily News yesterday, a 17-year-old Murwillumbah girl, who did not want to be named, said weekend parties such as the one at Kingscliff had become an institution and were not about to go away. A party-goer herself who confessed to knocking back at least eight drinks each weekend, she said drinking at parties had simply become the thing to do for teens.

I don't think you'll be able to stop teenagers partying, the girl said. I know kids who drive for kilometres on a Saturday night to find a party because they'e bored. She agreed with the members of the Youth Forum assembled by the Daily News this week that teens needed more to do on weekends. The nine schoolkids who attended our forum said there was a lack of facilities and services for teens throughout the Tweed. This, according to the schoolgirl, is exactly why the teen party scene has become so big in the region. "There's not really any other options for us on weekends but to go to parties," she said.

"Most non-alcoholic facilities are closed after dark, and even public transport options at night don't give us a lot of options. Some alternative is surely needed. However, boredom is not the only factor involved when it comes to teens drinking. She said in many cases young kids were consuming alcohol in a bid to be considered "cool" by their peers. "Most people I know start drinking to be considered cooler," she said casually. I make friends when I'm drunk, so whether you do it to make friends or hook up or whatever, if you see someone cool drinking and they ask you if you want one, you're not going to say no are you."

"In some cases the people offering the alcohol at these parties are well past their teenage years, making it more difficult to say no." "There are always 20-plus people who rock up at parties, and sometimes they supply the drinks," she said. "A lot of times they cause the most trouble, not teenagers."
In fact drinking and partying on weekends has become so import-ant to teens' images that she said it is discussed and encouraged in the schoolyard.

Despite admitting under-age drinking was wrong, the girl said she enjoyed getting drunk with friends. "As a kid, I always thought drinking was disgusting. Seeing my mum and my dad and the way they acted when they were drunk, I always told myself I would never do it," she said. "But as I grew into it, and tried it a little bit, I started to enjoy it. It's not like we party to make noise, throw bottles at people or cause havoc. It's the social thing to do and I party because I love dancing."

Samantha Stoneman is a work experience student from Tweed Valley College

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Police closed two unauthorised dance parties on the north coast over the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, police received information an unauthorised dance party was being set-up in the Pine Creek State Forest at Bellingen.

Police attended the location and ordered approximately 50 people from the area. They also seized a generator which had been brought in for the event.

About 8am on Sunday, police were notified another unauthorised dance party was taking place at Hungry Head, Urunga.

Police dispersed the crowd of about 200 people and the party was shut down.

The generator being used was also seized.

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NSW police closed down two illegal outdoor dance parties on the state's north coast over the weekend.

Officers were first alerted on Saturday afternoon about preparations for an unauthorised dance party in the Pine Creek State Forest, at Bellingen, near Coffs Harbour.

"Police attended the location and ordered approximately 50 people from the area," NSW Police said in a statement.

"They also seized a generator which had been brought in for the event."

About 8am (AEST) on Sunday, police were notified of a dance party in progress at Hungry Head, Urunga, also on the north coast.

"Police dispersed the crowd of about 200 people and the party was shut down," Police said.

Another generator was also seized.

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BINGE drinking has been blamed for a surge in the number of women arrested for violence.

The number of women identified by police as being involved in assault incidents grew from 13,373 in 2002-03 to 14,806 in 2006-07, figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show.

There was a 2.3 per cent growth in the 10 to 17 age bracket, and of 2.6 per cent among women aged over 18.

The overall assault rate and assaults by men have remained steady.

The emergency director of St Vincent's Hospital, Gordian Fulde, has no doubt a rise in binge drinking is behind the growing number of females committing assault.

He described the massive increase in the representation of drunk young women to his department over the past few years as "scary".

"Have I seen an upward trend in the number of women involved in assaults? Yes: a) in number, b) in severity.

"Women tolerate alcohol less. The disinhibition will then mean it disinhibits their control. They'll start swearing, act aggressively and they'll fight. And they'll cause fights," Dr Fulde said.

The statistics bureau chief, Don Weatherburn, said nationwide data showed the number of women entering emergency departments with acute alcohol intoxication had also risen. "The contribution of methamphetamine to female assault is minuscule compared with the contribution of alcohol," he told the Herald.

Dr Fulde said binge drinking was also causing young women to be more sexually permissive. "That sets up for a whole lot of problems."

There have been several violent attacks by women recently, although it is not known whether they were linked to alcohol.

Early last month, four young women were charged over a violent robbery in which the victims were allegedly knocked to the ground and assaulted.

A few days later, two women were charged with murder and aggravated robbery occasioning actual bodily harm over the murder of an 87-year-old for $700.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last year showed one in eight adults, or about 2 million people, drank at a risky level in the week surveyed.

But the increase in those drinking at a risky level in the 10 years since 1995 was greater for women than for men. Risky consumption involves more than seven standard drinks for men and five for women on any single occasion.

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ALCOHOL suppliers are bypassing government regulations and deliberately targeting young people with elaborate giveaways and sneaky promotions, according to an Australian study.

The University of Wollongong survey examined the link between promotional giveaways at bottle shops and escalating drinking rates in young people.

The study's lead author Sandra Jones found a direct link between increased alcohol consumption and alcohol promotions, saying that “gifts with purchase” and “get one free offers” were clearly targeted at youth, News Limited reports.

“We need to look at the system we have for regulating the types of promotions,” Ms Jones said.

“There is no monitoring and no formal system to say a promotion is not appropriate.”

The research has prompted alcohol experts to call on the NSW state government to tighten legislation and target point of sale promotions.

“It is extremely concerning,” Geoff Munro from the Community Alcohol Action Network said.

“These promotions effectively enable the alcohol industry to evade the laws and regulations which state alcohol advertising must not be aimed at young people.

“It is alarming because it will have an impact on young people's health.”

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