Though the rate has significantly decreased, the United States continued into the late 90's with one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized world. Given the advancements in fire prevention, including public education, building design, consumer product safety, and sophisticated levels of the fire protection in this country, it is puzzling to many as to why this is so. In an effort to identify the underlying problem(s), researchers have been delving deeper into the extent to which human behavior affects our fire losses. The connection between alcohol and the ignition, detection, and escape from the fire has been broadly examined by numerous medical and fire protection organization studies. A series of landmark studies undertaken by the Johns Hopkins University and the National Bureau of Standards in the 1970's were among the first to discover a definitive link between alcohol consumption and fire deaths. Many studies have now confirmed their general findings. Alcohol intoxication may increase the risk of initiating a fire by impairing one's judgment and coordination. An intoxicated individual who is smoking may also succumb to the depressant effects of alcohol, fall asleep and drop a lit cigarette on upholstery or clothing. Intoxication also acutely diminishes one's ability to detect a fire. Under the sedative effects of alcohol, an alcohol-impaired person may fail to notice the smell of smoke, or fail to hear a smoke alarm. Escape from a fire can be hampered by the loss of motor coordination and mental clarity caused by alcohol, even when warning signs are heeded. Furthermore, burns are more physiologically damaging in the presence of alcohol. Several researchers have found that about half of all adult fire fatalities were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the fire. Men have been found to consistently outnumber women among fire casualties and do so with even greater disparity for fire victims under the influence of alcohol. In addition, the younger adult population (ages 15 to 34) seems to incur the greatest number of alcohol-impaired fire casualties. Drinking behaviors that are characteristic of various age groups and sexes may explain these findings. 2 Studies have also provided conclusive evidence supporting the deleterious effects of chronic and acute alcohol abuse on the occurrence and recovery from burn injuries. Burn injury victims have been found to be disproportionately likely to have been intoxicated at the time of injury or known to be heavy drinkers. …

Smoking, binge drinking, and illicit drug use remain common among college students. The purpose of this study was to characterize college students who smoke, and to determine the relationship between smoking behavior and alcohol and illicit drug use. Cigarette smoking, alcohol use and illicit drug use practices were surveyed at ten public colleges in Virginia. A total of 3,374 undergraduate respondents from eight schools (those with response rates > 20%) were analyzed. The one-year smoking prevalence was 23.5%. Smokers were significantly more likely to be white, female, and to have lower life satisfaction and grade point averages than nonsmokers. Students classified themselves as regular or occasional smokers. Smoking was significantly associated with binge drinking in the last two weeks and with marijuana, cocaine, and LSD use in the past year. Except for binge drinking, the associations were stronger for regular than for occasional smokers. Cigarette smoking, even occasional use, identifies a subgroup of college students who are at increased risk of binge drinking and illicit drug use. This information may be useful in developing targeted drug prevention programs.