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Binge drinking among kids shooting up across Ontario By IRENE GENTLE The Champion Kids as young as seventh grade are part of an alarm- ing increase in high school binge driniking statistics, according to figures from Halton Region's health department. Equally troublesome is one method of drinking. Some of the adolescents imihing force as much sIca- hol as they can down their throats hy using a funnel. Funneing is helieved to make the alcohol hit harder and faster. Health department figures have hinge drinking among Ontario' s grades seven, nine, 11 and 13 stu- dents up 41 per cent in 1997. ' We're seeing kids who are funnelîng alcohol," said the health department's Kathy Miller. That's bad news for the health department, whose staff are going on a bender of their own for drug awareness week, November 14-21. T'hat would be an education bender. They're heading out to the front lines of local schools to deliver the message that there can be some heavy consequences for a big night out. T'hat's because in the United States, 4,000 kids die from alcohol poisonîng annually -more than are felled by drunk driving accidents, according to the health department. Canadian statistics are not available. "Alcohol poisoning is a reality. It's out there," warned Ms Miller. Wlsen the bloodstream is overloaded with alcohol it can stop breathing and heartbeat. It's related to binge drinking, which is consuming five or more standard alcoholic drinks in a short peri- od of ime with the sole purpose of getting drunk. To hit the message home the health department will be using a tool kids understand - technology. They' l be carrying with thcm a computerized blood alcohol calculator (BAC). With that, pinpointing blood alcohol levels is as easy as logging in gender, height and weight statistics, along with information on how many drinks are downed during a typical night out. "We give them an idea of what their blood alcohol would be like," said Ms Miller. While the legal driving limit allows .08 per cent alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, graduated icens- ing has a built in zero tolerance policy. I other words, one drink means no driving for hold- ers of graduated licenses. "Unless they have a permanent license, they can't drink at ail when they're driving," said Ms Miller. "Tlsey shouldn't be operating any kind of vehicle at ail. Not even a bike." One of the benefits of the BAC is it gives kids an idea of how long alcohol stays in the blood. It shows that getting behind the wheel even the morning after may not be a good idea. Danger signs for alcohol poisoning include: *Cold, pale, bluish skin *Passing out *Vomiting while sleeping *Slow or irregular breathing, down to less than eight breaths per minute or more than 10 seconds between breaths. "If there's any doubt whatsoever, I would get help," said Ms Miller. "Cali 911 or get to the emergency room." 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