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SMOKING AND DRINKING levels among 15 to 16-year olds across Europe including Irish teenagers are declining, according to a major new EU report on alcohol and other drugs.
However, the study of teenagers’ habits in 35 European countries showed Irish teenagers were more likely to have taken illicit drugs than their continental counterparts.
The report by the EU Drugs Agency, known as the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), revealed 20% of Irish teenagers had consumed some illegal drug in their lifetime compared to the European average of 17%.
They study also expressed concern over potentially risky cannabis use – which has been taken by 19% of Irish teenagers – and dangers posed by new addictive behaviours such as e-cigarettes.
The report revealed 37% of Irish teenagers already used an e-cigarette at some stage with 15% having had one in the previous month with the highest level of use among non-smokers rather than occasional or regular smokers.
Boys in Ireland are almost twice as likely to use e-cigarettes as girls.
Almost 100,000 students, including 1,940 from the Republic, participated in the latest edition of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs which also highlighted how gambling for money has become a popular activity with 30% of boys and 19% of girls in Ireland having gambled at least once in the previous year.
One in 10 Irish teenagers regarded their gambling as excessive with 5.7% claiming their gambling was problematic.
The report found alcohol use remains high among adolescents across Europe with 72% in Ireland admitting having used alcohol at some stage with 41% having consumed it in the previous month which were levels slightly below the European average.
However, 16% said they had become intoxicated in the previous month compared to the European average of 13% with the rate slightly higher among girls than boys.
Almost a quarter of Irish teenagers said they had consumed alcohol at the age of 13 or younger with 5.3% claiming they had become intoxicated at the time.
Spirits are the most popular type of alcoholic drink with Irish teenagers followed closely by both beer and cider.
Despite the high levels of alcohol use among young people, the EMCDDA figures show the trend has been downward since a peak in 2003 when 91% of European teenagers had consumed alcohol in their lifetime and 63% had taken in in the previous month.
The study also recorded the lowest level of binge drinking among European teenagers in over a decade – down from 43% in 2007 to 35% last year – although the figure has risen slightly in Ireland in recent years.
A third of Irish teenagers admitted taking at least five drinks on one occasion last year.
The report said changes in drinking regulations in EU member states may have contributed to the decline in alcohol use among young people.
Smoking
On another positive note, smoking has become less popular with teenagers across Europe including Ireland where smoking rates are below the European average.
The report shows 31% of Irish teenagers have smoked a cigarette in their lifetime compared to the European average of 41%.
Only 14% of Irish students had smoked in the past month in contrast to the European average of 20%.
The study showed 11% of Irish teenagers claimed to have smoked a cigarette before they were 13 with 2.4% stating they had smoked on a daily basis at that age.
The EMCDDA said it was likely that a high proportion of e-cigarette devices contained nicotine and the overall use of nicotine by teenagers could be rising again.
The agency said the issue warranted further investigations because of its potential to have public health consequences.
The EMCDDA said the non-medical use of prescription drugs by teenagers, including tranquilisers, sedatives and painkillers also remained a concern.
Irish teenagers recorded the highest level of use of synthetic cathinones in Europe with 2.5% admitting taking the substance, while they also had one of the highest levels of use of anabolic steroids at 2%.
Ireland also recorded the highest rate of any European country for the perceived availability of cocaine with 22% claiming it was relatively easy to get.
Just over 3% of teenagers in the Republic said they had taken cocaine which made it the most common illicit drug in Ireland after cannabis.
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It has since become a profitable source of income of certain NGOs who focus on unaffected children born decades after the disaster rather than adults, who were children at the time, who carry a burden of an increased risk of thyroid cancer.
Though it should be pointed out that thyroid cancer his highly treatable, it has >99% survival rate. It is Ironically that it is often cured with the help of Iodine-131 (the same isotope responsible for thyroid cancer in the first place).
“By 2005, 5,127 cases of thyroid cancer were reported among those exposed in 1986 under the age of 14 years; 6,848 cases have been reported for those who had been under the age of 18 years; 15 cases had proved fatal.”
And a study just published found no increase in mutations in children where one or both parents had either helped clean up the accident site or had to evacuate because they lived close by.
“Study finds no excess germline mutations in children of Chernobyl survivors”
Ref.:
Yeager, M., Machiela, M.J., et al. 2021. Lack of transgenerational effects of ionizing radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident. Science, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg2365.
Weiss, W., 2018. Chernobyl thyroid cancer: 30 years of follow-up overview. Radiation protection dosimetry, 182(1), pp.58-61.
@David Jordan: a real eye opener. Thanks for that
@David Jordan: Excellent insight into how the charities around Chernobyl work.
Eye opening stuff
@Marie Mc: sounds like the modus operandi of alot of charities
@David Jordan: Would that be the charity that still claims on their website…
“Scientists feared that a further explosion could occur, producing a force of three to five megatons, and exposing the whole of Europe to enormous radioactive contamination.”
“700,000 men, known as liquidators, risked their lives and exposed themselves to dangerous levels of radiation to contain the situation. At east 40,000 of these men have died and a further 70,000 are disabled”
@Gavin Tobin: “700,000 men, known as liquidators, risked their lives and exposed themselves to dangerous levels of radiation to contain the situation. At east 40,000 of these men have died and a further 70,000 are disabled”
Well they are 35 years older. This is expected for an aging population that was also affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union, that resulted in increased in poverty rates, worsening diet, alcoholism and smoking.
But what about comparing them to others who were not involved in the cleanup, don’t they have relatively higher rates of ill health?
Well, there’s a plausible suggestion that Chernobyl Liquidators’ increased concern for their health resulted in a higher rate of diagnosed medical conditions. They were also offered yearly medical check-ups. Medical care in the Former Soviet Union collapsed, so diagnosis and treatment all too often relied on a patient’s own initiative. There was also a problem with medical record going missing.
So this may give a false impression that Chernobyl Liquidators have higher rates of ill health.
Similar happened in reverse in Iraq, harsh sanctions caused medical care to collapse under Saddam’s rule, as a result cancer and birth defects went undiagnosed, untreated and unrecorded. After 2003, medical care improved and they they started diagnosing cancer again and a reliable record of birth defects was kept. This gives a false impression of an explosion in cancer cases and birth defects.
@David Jordan: the 2021 study you cite has a sample of 130 children. A quantitative study with a sample of 130 born between 1987-2002. Is neither rigorous nor generalisable so I would not take such findings at face value. Further to this, the study does not offer much information on the methodology of the study which also raises questions regarding the validity of the findings
I visited the site 2 yrs ago. Would recommend it to any adult (for safety reasons). Great place for reflection on the human, ecological and historical scale of the sote as mentioned in the article.
Humans: F-up the environment for themselves
Nature: Thanks and dont let the door hit you on the way out
No mention of the horrific effects on children born to people affected by radiation fallout from Chernobel, abandoned and rejected left in orphenenages to be cared for by the state.
@Richard Mccarthy: A study just published found no increase in mutations (abnormalities) in children born to parents who had either helped clean up the accident site or had to evacuate because they lived close by.
“Study finds no excess germline mutations in children of Chernobyl survivors
The study investigated the long-standing question of whether radiation exposure results in genetic changes that can be passed from parent to offspring.
In fact, the number of de novo mutations in these children was similar to those in the general population.
These findings suggest that the ionizing radiation exposure from the accident had a minimal, if any, impact on the health of the subsequent generation.”
Ref.:
Yeager, M., Machiela, M.J., et al. 2021. Lack of transgenerational effects of ionizing radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident. Science, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg2365.
@Richard Mccarthy: Because it a myth.
And not one superhero…….
Tragedy disaster Chernobyl power plant melt to blow to everywhere place land radioactive won’t gone next 2,000 years. Should banned power plants all world
@Brian Flavin: An estimated 2,000,000 lives have been saved by nuclear power.
@Brian Flavin: what?
@Brian Flavin: in English?
I believe he said “Tragedy disaster Chernobyl power plant melt to blow to everywhere place land radioactive won’t gone next 2,000 years. Should banned power plants all world”
@Darragh Lynch: I believe he uses some type of speech to text converter due to a disability.
What’s your excuse for being ignorant?
@Darragh Lynch: Brian said that the Chernobyl plant meltdown was a tragedy and a disaster. He said that radiation was blown everywhere and that the land became radioactive. He added that the radiation won’t be gone for the next 2,000 years. He said that power plants (nuclear) should be banned worldwide.
@Gavin Tobin: They’re not worth the risk.
@Ken Loughman: right, there’s about 440 active reactors in the world currently, producing around 10% of all power. What do you replace them with?
@Michal Rozanski: Dirty great big coal fired power stations or giant hydroelectric dams that can flood rain forest, displace towns and villages, and can collapse ,killing thousands.
1975 Banqiao Dam failure
“The dam failure created the third-deadliest flood in history which affected a total population of 10.15 million and inundated around 30 cities and counties of 12,000 square kilometers (or 3 million acres), with an estimated death toll ranging from 85,600 to 240,000 (26,000 according to the Chinese government).”
“Property damage:
62 dams collapsed
30 cities and counties (3 million acres) inundated
6.8 million houses collapsed
10.75 million people affected
Fantastic psvr game
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