The relation between consumption and damage.

Abstract

and recorded two eye injuries. Both patients had a hyphaema and one also had a choroidal rupture. Given that these injuries were caused by the ball, the rate of 9-4 eye injuries per 100 000 competitive playing sessions is no different from our observed rate at the 5%" level of significance. We thank M J Absolon, I H Chisholm, J I McGill, and C B Walker for allowing us to study the notes of patients under their care. We are indebted to Professor W E Waters for his helpful criticism, and we are grateful to the Southampton University Department of Teaching Media for the illustration. References Veal AJ. Sport and recreation in England and Wales: an analysis of adult participation patterns in 1977. Birmingham: Leisure and Tourism Unit, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, 1979. (Research memorandum 74.) 2Ingram DV, Lewkonia I. Ocular hazards of playing squash rackets.

Failures in prevention: Why we can't prevent the devastating effect of alcoholism and drug abuse.

“…Cook presumes, accordingly, that increases in the price of spirits will reduce both auto fatality rates and rates of liver cirrhosis. Smith (1981) draws the same conclusions. The World Health Organization (1979) takes still another view-that, although alcoholic beverages behave like other market commodities (in that consumption is affected by price), complicated interactions between the availability of alcohol and the density of the distribution network, on the one hand, and the pricing of alcohol, on the other, prevent a consistent, direct linkage between price and consumption.…”

Prospects for prevention.

“…Unfortunately this is difficult to achieve. The only certain way to reduce heavy drinking is to reduce the average amount drunk by the whole population.34 35 This may be brought about most simply by increasing cost relative to available income35 -3 but we should not despair of other methods and should give the maximum support to the idea of setting up a body comparable to Action on Smoking and Health to press for "action against alcohol," as has already been proposed by the conference of college presidents.…”

Sensitivity of some tests for alcohol abuse: Findings in nonalcoholics recovering from intoxication

“…A carefully taken medical history could be useful, as could a thorough examination for the signs of alcohol-induced pathology (1,12,24,26,34,37). But many alcoholics are cunning enough to recognize leading questions related to their problem.…”

“…There are, however, other tests for alcoholism that are sensitive to biochemical changes (7,10,11,26,32,36) or to *O decrements in performance (1,4,15,21,27,30,31,33,43). Apparently these tests reflect pathologic changes for which a variety of mechanisms have been proposed I (1,2,8,14,16,20,22,28,37,38,39,40).…”