NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9
Beer advertising turning youth into future drinkers
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Those fun-filled beer commercials at halftime may be influencing children to drink, according to research that found fifth-graders reciting slogans, reeling off brand names and saying they intended to drink frequently later in life.
And they get plenty of chances to absorb those commercials whenever they watch sports on TV. Researchers counted 685 alcohol ads during 122 televised sporting events, only three of which advocated moderation in drinking.
Friday, February 11, 1994
"Their beliefs are being influenced, their beliefs about the positive consequences of drinking," said Joel Grube of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's prevention research center. The institute is an arm of the government's National
Institutes of Health.
The issue of alcohol advertising's impact on children has long been controversial. Teenagers consume 1.1 billion cans or bottles of beer every year, and some researchers have linked such drinking to exposure to ads.
The industry insists that it doesn't target underage consumers and that even if minors are exposed to the ads, it doesn't influence their behavior.
But Grube, in two studies to be published today in the "American Journal of Public Health," found that not only are children bombarded with alcohol advertising, they link drinking with "romance, sociability and relaxation."
The Beer Institute responded that no one has proved advertising contributes to underage drinking, which
has been dropping since the 1970s thanks to intensive education programs.
"This is an obvious campaign against the beer industry waged by a small anti-alcohol faction within the American Public Health Association," which published the Journal, said institute President Raymond McGrath.
Grube found that fifth- and sixthgraders recited slogans, reeled off brand names and even identified commercials by photographs in which the brand names were marked out. Those most aware of the ads were most likely to say they intended to drink frequently as adults.
Yet they weren't aware of the negative impacts of alcohol, from drunken driving to alcoholism, nor of public service announcements on drinking.
THE NEWS in brief
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Three hostages freed one day after capture in northern Somalia
Somali gunmen freed two British lawmakers and a charism worker yesterday, about 24 hours after they and three other people were abducted in northern Somalia, officials said. The other hostages were released earlier.
"We can confirm that they are the ActionAid office in Erigavo and we understand that they will fly out" today, the British Foreign Office said in London.
The captives were identified as Mark Robinson and Tony Worthington, members of Britain's Parliament; Anne Johnstone, a reporter for the Glasgow Herald, in Scotland; and Robert LeMare, Action Chinnock and Haroun Yusuf, all of the charity group ActionAid.
"Negotiations carried out by the elders of the local community were successful in securing their release unarmed," said Julia Felthouse, representative at Action-Aid's London headquarters. Felthouse said Johnstone, LeMare and Yusuf had been freed sometime before the other three.
George Bennett, a U.N. representative in Mogadishu, said the six had been seized Wednesday evening somewhere between the village of Hared and the coastal town of Mait, about 150 miles east of the northern port of Berbera. He said he had been held overnight at Hared.
Bennett said the United Nations did not know the motive for the kidnapping, but British news reports said they were being held for ransom.
The area in which the six were kidnapped is in the self.
proclaimed Somaliaand Republic, which was a British colony before Somalia won its independence from Britain and Italy in the early 1960.
FARGO, N.D.
Abortion consent law upheld
A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a North Dakota law requiring a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.
In a 2-1 decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the "informed consent" law was not an undue burden for rural women and pregnant minors.
The law, passed in 1991, had been challenged by the Fargo Women's Health Organization, the only clinic in the state where abortions are performed. The clinic argued that the law could require two, possibly even three, long-distance trips to the clinic.
"Although the distance a woman must travel to obtain an abortion may be a factor in obtaining abortion, it is not the result of the state regulation," said Senior Judge John R. Gibson, writing for the major on the appeals court.
The law, which was allowed to take effect in April, requires that the state make available information about fetal development and abortion alternatives. In the case of minors, the law requires that the girl's parents be informed.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Pennsylvania law on which the North Dakota law is based. The high court said that "important decisions will be more informed and deliberate" after a period of reflection.
Judge Theodore McMillan, who cast the dissenting vote in the North Dakota case, referred to the opinion of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who said an undue burden existed if it represented "a substantial obstacle to a woman's choice to undergo an abortion."
Compiled from The Associated Press.
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