{"id":55262,"date":"2017-03-11T15:44:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T21:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=55262"},"modified":"2017-03-11T15:44:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T21:44:42","slug":"binge-drinking-rises-with-heavy-toll-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/binge-drinking-rises-with-heavy-toll-in-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Binge drinking rises, with heavy toll in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Newman<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Illinois alum Erin McPartlin, 26, wasn\u2019t surprised when she learned that a student had died during the university\u2019s annual \u201cUnofficial St. Patrick\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Held on the first Friday of March, the holiday revolves around day-long binge drinking, and many students don\u2019t know their limits, McPartlin said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFreshman year and on, when I was in school, I always heard stories about people dying,\u201d said McPartlin, who graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. \u201cI think that it\u2019s just out of control. These things aren\u2019t really freak accidents. You know something bad\u2019s going to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

The March 3 event ended in tragedy when Jonathan Gonzalez, a 23-year-old communications major from Franklin Park, Ill., died after falling off a fourth-floor apartment balcony. Gonzalez\u2019s passing is the third Unofficial-related death since the event\u2019s founding in 1995, University spokeswoman Robin Kaler told The Daily Illini. <\/p>\n

Unofficial has led to 178 hospitalizations since 2009, including 20 this year, according to The News-Gazette.<\/p>\n

These unfortunate events highlight the potential consequences of binge drinking–consequences that aren\u2019t just limited to Big 10 students.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Binge drinking by the numbers<\/h2>\n

Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic beverages in a two-hour period for women, or five or more drinks in one sitting for men. <\/p>\n

Twenty-four percent of adults reported at least one heavy drinking day in 2015, compared with 19.85 percent in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control reported. <\/p>\n

In Illinois, nearly 21 percent of residents reported one heavy drinking day in the last 30 days, averaging 7.1 drinks on each binge drinking occasion. <\/p>\n

In addition to health risks, excessive alcohol consumption has real economic consequences.<\/p>\n

Problems related to excessive drinking cost the United States $249 billion in 2010, according to a 2015 study by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The state of Illinois incurred $9.72 billion, or $757 per person, in costs related to excessive alcohol consumption in 2010, the study reported. That\u2019s nearly three times the median cost incurred by other states. <\/p>\n

For 77 percent of these costs, binge drinking was the culprit. <\/p>\n

While long-term alcohol use can lead to costly health conditions like heart disease or cancer, binge drinking is more often associated with accidents, such as car crashes and falls, and increased risk of assault, said Daniel Fridberg, an addiction expert and psychologist at the University of Chicago. <\/p>\n\n\n