Alcohol consumptions largest social concern is drink driving as it was found over 0,000 deaths each year are due to drunk drivers with approximately 3% of car incidents being due to alcohol-impaired driving (NHTSA, 200). According further to NHTSA (200) found that 35% of car incidents involved individuals who have a BAC of 0.08 percent or higher. Alcohol can affect drivers cognitive ability, attention span, reaction time and judgement even when consumption is low it still significantly affects the individuals driving ability. Nash (962) established that drivers become more distracted whilst under the influence of alcohol when they were asked to complete certain tasks. Alcohol can cause major car incidents due to the individuals affected judgement of distance and perception as well as their ability to process various information at the same time. In addition to Nashs research it was found that alcohol impacts on reaction times, visual awareness and logical reasonings which could all impact on the driver when under the influence which is what causes the high percentage of drunken car incidents due to overall lack of control on their bodily responses (Williamson, Feyer, Mattick, Friswell & Finaly-Bro
wn, 200).
Further to the effect on the road alcohol Misuse can impact majorly on individuals workplaces as it can cause reduced productivity and unforeseen absences due to alcohol related sicknesses, therefore impacting significantly on the employees cost (Klingemann & Gmel, 200). Through various studies there has been found a high association between misuse of alcohol and unemployment as well as individuals who lose their job have increased intake of alcohol (Gallant, 993). In terms of the relation between work accidents and alcohol consumption it was found in Australia that employees in industrial worksites were 2.7 more times likely to have an injury-related absence than those workers who did not misuse alcohol (Webb, 994). On average in a year it was found that around 0 million working days were lost due to alcohol-related issues and around 25% of workplace incidents were also directly linked to alcohol misuse. Prime Ministers Strategy Unit (2003) found that annually it is estimated that alcohol misuse costs workplaces up to 6.4 billion. Therefore, alcohol having a licit status can have many negative impacts around individuals workplaces and to their fellow employees in terms of incident rates.