Troubling binge-drinking trend turns up in study

By Allen Reed

"She's [Texas State student, Sarah Brown] not the only one seeing the troubling trend. A recent decades-long study finds that binge drinking has decreased significantly or stayed stagnant across a variety of demographics except one: women. ..."

"David Jernigan, executive director of the center on alcohol marketing and youth, said the rise in female binge drinkers can be attributed to recent advertising campaigns for 'alcopops,' which are sweet, fizzy, fruit-flavored drinks. ..."

"The associate professor at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore said in 2001 there were less than 2,000 distilled spirit advertisements on television compared to 62,000 in 2007. He said girls were much more likely to be exposed to alcohol advertising than boys. ..."

Full article available at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6502003.html