Public Awareness
B4UDrink Featured in WOW Webcast!
B4UDrink.Mobi is one of the featured wireless safety applications in this month’s "Wonder of Wireless" (WOW) webcast, produced by CTIA-The Wireless Association(R). The webcast shows viewers how easy it is to estimate your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) by using a cell phone to access B4UDrink.Mobi. A special thank you to the Fairfax County Police Department in Northern Virginia for being part of this webcast and encouraging drivers to use their wireless device to notify police of suspected drunk drivers. Check out the webcast below. To learn more about CTIA and other wireless safety initiatives, visit www.CTIA.org.
Female Athletes Promote Healthy and Active Lifestyles
The Century Council recently teamed up with 3 influential female athletes to help promote healthy and active lifestyles among teenagers through radio public service announcements (PSA):
Misty May-Treanor, a professional beach volleyball player. Misty has won more tournaments than any other female player with 103 career wins. Misty was a gold medalist in beach volleyball at both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. Misty and her teammate Kerri Walsh have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time."
Sue Bird, a professional women's basketball player. Sue is a two-time national champion with the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team and she was the first player to be picked in the 2002 WNBA Draft. She currently plays for the WNBA's Seattle Storm, having won the national championship in 2004. She is also a member of the 2008 gold medal winning United States Women's Olympic basketball team.
Natasha Watley, a professional softball player. Natasha is currently with the USA Softball Women’s National Team. She plays the position of shortstop and first base, and helped her team to win the gold medal for softball at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and a silver metal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
To check out the PSAs head to our Media Center and take a listen!
New Underage Drinking Research From SAMHSA
SAMHSA has released a supplemental report from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) which looks at underage drinking by source and how the alcohol was obtained.
More than one in four youth ages 12 to 20 report they consumed alcohol in the past month, with 31% of these youth reporting they paid for the alcohol they last consumed and 69% reporting they got the last alcohol they consumed for free. Sources of alcohol vary by age, but among younger youth (12-14 year olds) the leading sources of alcohol is family, whereas a plurality of older youth (18-20 year olds) report their leading source of alcohol is a non-relative aged 21 or older.
Regardless of their source of alcohol, youth who paid for the last alcohol they consumed drink more, on average, than those who did not pay for the alcohol they consumed (6 drinks and 3.9 drinks, respectively.) Additional highlights from the report include paying for alcohol increases with increasing age and that females are less likely to pay for the alcohol they last consumed than their male peers (76% and 63%, respectively). The complete report can be viewed here.
Decade-long Commitment to Alcohol Education on Campus
The Century Council will attend the US Department of Education’s National Meeting on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention in Higher Education. For over 10 years, The Century Council has assisted colleges and universities with innovative strategies to promote alcohol education on campus. Its commitment to developing a comprehensive approach that includes research- based educational materials for students, parents, faculty, administrators and other members of the campus community while supporting enforcement of the legal drinking age provides a solid foundation to our efforts to curb underage and binge drinking among college students.
Most recently, we partnered with the American Advertising Federation to sponsor their 2009 National Students Advertising Competition. Through this national competition, students will contribute to solving the problem of dangerous alcohol overconsumption among college students by presenting new approaches to communicate with their peers about this important issue.
The Century Council programs highlighted at this year’s conference include: Alcohol 101 Plus™ Online, Promising Practices: Campus Alcohol Strategies, Back on Trac, and the Parents You’re Not Done Yet brochures.
For more information about the meeting, visit the conference website.
B4UDrink Goes Mobile!
The B4UDrink Educator, which allows users to learn how alcohol consumption affects individuals' Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level, has now expanded. In addition to B4Udrink.org's online Virtual Bar, users can now use the interactive program on the go by navigating to B4UDrink.mobi on cell phones, BlackBerrys, PDAs, iPhones, and any other smart phones and devices with internet access. Now that B4UDrink has gone mobile, you can estimate BAC levels before you drink anywhere and everywhere you take your mobile phone!
New Survey
The Century Council commissioned a new national survey of young adults (18-24 year olds) including college students and non-students to investigate the impacts of college attendance and an active and healthy lifestyle, including involvement in sports, on underage drinking behaviors. The survey found that non-students report more dangerous behaviors than their college student peers - drinking at an earlier age, drinking more often, and consuming more. To learn more about the survey and its findings, click here.