Alcohol is something that has been part of human nature for thousands of years. It has been used by means of medical, social, religious, and cultural settings (Information about Alcohol, n.d.). Alcohol is going to be a product that will be a part of our lives for many years to come, definitely past our lifetime. A problem that we see today is the use of drinking and driving. This is one of life’s more dangerous and stupid activities, but people still decide to do it. People like to push their abilities to the edge, which could end up causing death to themselves and others. When we watch the news, there always seems to be at least one crash that involved a drunk driver. You have to remember that one incident happened in our city, but it’s actually happening in almost every city in the United States and the world. If it happens this often in a car, alcohol is bound to creep itself into other dangerous scenarios. Aviation is an extremely dangerous as it is, but when alcohol is thrown into the mix, flying becomes nearly impossible. Throughout this paper, I will be describing what alcohol is actually doing to your body, along with the effects it has on a pilot while they are flying.
When a person first drinks a drink with alcohol in it, their central nervous system is going to be affected. While you are not impaired, the central nervous system receives sensory details from different organs in your body. Some of these organs include the eyes and ears. From the information that is collected, the central nervous system then analyzes it and sends a response to conduct a certain contraction in a muscle. All of these normal circumstances are severely different when a person is intoxicated with alcohol. The intoxication i...
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FAR/AIM 2011: federal aviation regulations, aeronautical information manual : rules and procedures for general aviation, sport pilots, and instructors. (2011 ed., p. 163). (2010). 91.17 Alcohol or drugs. Newcastle, WA: Aviation Supplies & Academics.
Information about Alcohol. (n.d.). Understanding Alcohol. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/alcohol/guide/info-alcohol.htm
Modell, J., & Mountz, J. (1990). Drinking and Flying - The Problem of Alcohol Use by Pilots. The New England Journal of Medicine, 323, 455-461. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199008163230706#t=article
& Associates. (2009, April 23). Definition of Under the Influence of Alcohol. Lawyers, Attorneys, Law Firms – Find Legal Information. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=6247
It is a tragic truth: About 10,000 lives are lost in the United States because of drunk driving each year. Alcohol is wildly known as one of the main reasons of causing social security issue. Small amount can make people feel relaxed, but bigger amount could make them loss their coordination, get feeling of confusion and disorientation, and significantly slowed their reaction time. On average, one person dies every hour because of alcoholic traffic accident in United State. Therefore, the NTSB put out a recommendation last May that the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) level for drivers should be lowered from the current level of .08% to .05%. But for several reasons, we shouldn’t lower the criterion on blood alcohol content.
In the film, Flight, William “Whip” Whitaker is an airline pilot. Whitaker is depicted as having a substance use disorder (SUD) and more specifically, an alcohol use disorder (AUD). This paper discusses: the film, AUDs, the way Flight depicts Whitaker’s AUDs, an interpretation of the film’s depiction, and possible treatment for Whitaker.
Most alcoholics proceed to a stage where their brains or their bodies have been so harmed by alcohol that the effects persist even when they are not drinking. This stage may be reached...
The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most drivers that have only one or two drinks feel fine, and assume they are in control, which is irresponsible and dangerous. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body's ability to react and impairs judgment. To drive well, you need to be able to have a quick reaction time to avoid accidents. Unfortunately, people continue to drink and drive. However,...
Alcohol is causing too many deaths. Each year, excessive drinking is responsible for the deaths of 80,000 people in the United States, 4,700 of which are young Americans (6). Alcohol by itself is dangerous; this danger is (made greater) when individuals consuming it are allowed to drive a vehicle. Research has shown that a pedestrian struck by a vehicle moving at 40 miles an hour has a fifty percent chance of getting killed as a result of the impact (9). A distracted or impaired driver will not be able to react as fast as a non-impaired driver, meaning a drunk driver is a more dangerous driver than a sober one.
No one can deny that driving drink has caused traffic deaths and injuries. Drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the United States, killing someone approximately every 48 minutes. Drunk driving is “A time when humans willingly enter cages of glass and steel that move in such great numbers at such terrific speed, that subtle turn of the steering wheel can easily result in death” (Thomas). What possesses a person to get ...
Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
Driving while drunk is one of the very dangerous things in the life of a driver. Drivers who work under high Blood Alcohol Concentration also known as (BAC) usually expressed as a percentage of ethanol in the blood consisting of alcohol per volume of blood or alternatively mass of alcohol per mass of blood. These drivers are at a great increase of car risk accidents, vehicular deaths as well as highway risks. Drinking under the Influence commonly known as DUI simply refers to driving a motor vehicle while one has level of alcohol in their blood exceeding the legal limit. This is not limited to alcoholic content but covers other drugs that include but are not limited to prescription drugs. This leads the driver to lack coordination, experience double vision, brief blackouts and have a slurred speech. Driving under the influence causes brain impairment leading to a person feeling that they can manage a situation just like they have always handled it before. This is always as a result of poor reasoning and judgment which leaves one vulnerable to the deadly effects of drunk driving.
Alcohol abuse can be very dangerous because it can come at a time when a person is going through the bad times in their life. The only thing drugs do is worsens people’s lives because the behavior of the victim can change dramatically. Many drink at social events, to celebrate or relax. The problem is that many of the drinkers end up drinking more than what the body can withstand. According to the National institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism (2014), alcohol enters the blood as soon as the first sip and affect the body in as early as ten minutes. The amount then increase depending on the amount of drinks and the effects range from impairment, breathing problems, slurred speech, and coma. Some can even experience death as a result of becoming intoxicated because of having too much alcohol in the bloodstream. National institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism (2014). A young adult is more likely to experience a change in their mood and behavior because they are goi...
Alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse involve drinking patterns in which periods of heavy drinking followed with periods of abstinence. Alcohol generally has a suppressive effect on the central nervous system (CNS): It reduces the activity of excitatory neurotransmitters and enhances the activity of inhibitory neurotransmitters and thus their receptors. After long-term alcohol exposure, the body activates a set of mechanisms to counteract the effects of alcohol’s persistent presence in the brain. These mechanisms promote the activity of excitatory neurotransmitter systems and suppress the activity of inhibitory neurotransmitter systems, thereby attempting to return brain function to a “normal” state in the presence of alcohol. When the individual stops drinking, however, these adaptive changes result in an imbalance in inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission, resulting in CNS hyperexcitability that produces as alcohol withdrawal (AW) symptoms. This essay will focus on the main inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission systems and the symptoms produced in AW due to the imbalance in the brain. Followed by outlining other physiological changes alterations that are associated with AW.
Marcus, D. (March 27, 2000). Drnking To Get Drunk. U.S. News & World Report [On-line], Available: www2.gasou.edu/library/ (Galileo)(EBSCOhost)(Search=Alcohol Abuse).
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
Drunk driving is extremely impactful on the lives of you and others. While drinking and driving, you are not just endangering yourself, you are also endangering the lives of others. The driver of the car does not just control the car with their hands and feet. They need their brain to function properly so that you are able to react to objects on the road quicker and control the car. If you drink then drive/ drink while driving. Alcohol affects your brain in many ways that inhibit your ability to drive. Alcohol will affect your reaction time, it slows your reflexes which decrease your ability to react to objects on the road. It affects your vision, in can impair your color perception, and night vision. It slows down the movement in the muscles in your eye causing your visual perception to change. Alcohol affects your ability to track. You will not be able to judge the position of cars ahead of you, you won’t be able to judge the
(2004, October ). The. Retrieved 2012, from Alcohol Alert: http://pubs.niaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm. Zelman, K. (1995, Dec).
Many people in the United States enjoy a drink of their favorite alcoholic beverage. It could be a nice ice cold beer after a hard day of work or going to the bar and enjoying a few shots or mixed drinks with friends. Drinking alcohol is a common way to mingle with friends and take the edge off a difficult day. However, there are dangers involved with alcohol since it does dampen the body’s ability to cope with new information. Alcohol becomes a poison to the body when consumed in large quantities. The biggest danger is not to the driver after they become inebriated, but comes to anyone the drunk driver comes in contact with. A sober person can be dangerous just by being distracted, but a drunk driver’s ability to cope with changing situations and distractions is one of the biggest hazards on today’s roads. Some individuals believe that they are not as impaired as what they are led to believe from government ads and the many videos that show what can happen to someone who is drinking and driving. Although, there are many policies in place to advocate against drunk driving, there are those who would endanger themselves and others with their thoughtless actions when they jump into the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Drinking and driving should never be combined because a person who has been drinking does not have the ability to use all mental faculties unimpaired, many people have been killed, injured, or psychologically hurt by a drunk driver, many men and women do not know the difference weight and gender have on the body’s ability to process alcohol, and the financial and legal trouble that is awaiting for those convicted by a DUI.