Drunk minors flood ER at New Year's

Visits to emergency departments for underage drinking are likely to spike on New Year's Day, U.S. research suggests.

The study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that on New Year's Day 2009, there were an estimated 1,980 U.S. emergency department visits involving underage drinking, compared with 546 such visits on an average day that year.

"This stunning increase in underage drinking related emergency room visits on New Year's Day should be a wakeup call to parents, community leaders and all caring adults about the potential risks our young people face for alcohol-related accidents, injuries and death during this time of year," SAMHSA administrator Pamela Hyde said Thursday in a release.

The New Year's admissions surpassed other U.S. national holiday levels such as Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July weekend.

During Christmas and New Year's, two to three times more people die in alcohol-related collisions than during comparable periods the rest of the year, added Kenneth Warren, acting director of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Data for the study was collected by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, a public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related hospital emergency room visits.

The 2007 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey of students in grades 7 to 12 who were under the legal drinking age suggested 61 per cent reported drinking alcohol in the past year. Also, 26 per cent reported binge drinking at least once in the past four weeks.