The Wall Street Journal had a piece about alcohol consumption and women, two subjects near and dear to my heart.
Indeed, more women are drinking now than at any time in recent history, according to health surveys. In the nine years between 1998 and 2007, the number of women arrested for drunken driving rose 30%, while male arrests dropped more than 7%. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of young women who showed up in emergency rooms for being dangerously intoxicated rose by 52%. The rate for young men, though higher, rose just 9%.
But is this just an uptick in consumption as women achieve more economic parity with men? What is there to worry about here? Well, aside from the generally lower tolerance for the grape that women possess (leading to easier onset of actual health issues) there is this chestnut:
While the greatest number, 24%, of binge-drinking women are college-age, 10% of women between 45 and 64 said they binge drink—and so did 3% of women older than 65. The college-age binge drinkers and the senior binge drinkers overdid it with a similar frequency, about three times a month.
Just a moment…you’re telling me that the college kids and their parents are binge-drinking with similar frequency? Suddenly shotgunning a sixer of Beast should seem a lot less awesome.
The entire article is awfully fretful, but an interesting read nonetheless.