Survey: More women in Singapore hitting the bottle

TheSun 15Dec2005 Survey: More women in Singapore hitting the bottle SINGAPORE: A growing number of Singapore's youth are going on drinking binges with the sharpest increase among young women, a survey said yesterday. The rise in the number of female drinkers is the reason Singapore has more drinkers than non-drinkers for the first time, the study authors noted. The percentage of teetotallers has dropped from 59.5% in1998 to 49.2% in 2004, according to a national health survey published in The Sunday Times. Twice as many women under 30 are drinking at least five days a week. The proportion of women who binge ­ downing at least five drinks in one sitting ­ has tripled in the last six years. Those who binge tend to be between 18 and 29 years old, forming two in 10 of the heavy-drinking men and one in 10 among the women. The Health Promotion Board expressed concern. "People who drink large amounts of alcohol are more likely to develop alcoholrelated diseases, such as hypertension, liver disorders and cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus and larynx," it warned. People who binge are likely to have impaired judgment, said Dr. Ang Yong Guan, a psychiatrist. He cited the case of a man who molested a woman while inebriated. "It is the clearest example of when someone stops thinking and only feels," Ang was quoted as saying. Since 2000, the number of motorists charged with driving while intoxicated has doubled from 1,470 a year to 2,929. Patrons queried by the newspaper had no regrets and sentimentally recalled such escapades as washing hair in a public urinal, getting lost and sleeping in a park, and vomiting on themselves. Investment banker Charles Tank said that he once got so drunk he mistook his study for a toilet. ­ dpa