By Dr. W. Gifford Jones
The scenario will be repeated in thousands of homes during this holiday season. Parents and teenagers being reminded not to drink and drive at the same time. It's still good advice. But how many will also be cautioned not to smoke during the party and while driving their car? Yet tragedy will inevitably strike homes because people can't resist lighting up in the automobile. A recent study shows that the "Bingo Brain Syndrome" isn't confined solely to the Bingo Temples.
DR. Rob Brison of Queen's University , Kingston, told the annual meeting of the Royal College that smoking and driving entails an increased risk. His study was based on a sample of 1,000 drivers who had been involved in non-fatal accidents. And 1,000 drivers who had not been involved in accidents. All the drivers were males between the ages of 30 and 39 living in Seattle, Washington. The result? Cigarette smokers have a 50 per cent increased risk over non-smokers in motor vehicle crashes.
What can you account for the discrepancy? Dr. Brison isn't able to pinpoint the exact reason. But he offers several explanations. For one thing it's hard to fumble for a cigarette and keep your eye on the road and hands on the steering wheel at the same time. We've all seen smokers drop cigarettes in their lap, the ash fly into their eye or suffer from a paroxysm of coughing?
Decreased visibility can also be a factor. We've all been in cars when you could cut the smoke in the air with a knife. This irritates the eyes and decreases visibility when smoke is deposited on the windshield. It's doubly precarious at two in the morning when also faced with the glare of oncoming headlights
Dr. Brison detailed the behavioral differences between smokers and non-smokers. Alcoholics are more likely to be smokers than the general population. Smokers are also more inclined to take greater risks than non-smokers by not using seat belts, and driving in the fast lane.
This research focussed my attention on the "Bingo Brain Syndrome." DR. W.C. Watson, a staff member of the Victoria Hospital , London , Ontario reported a fascinating case in The Canadian Medical Association Journal. A 69 year old woman was admitted to hospital due to chest pain and mental confusion. She smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. After three days she became quite lucid and Dr. Watson then discovered she was an ardent bingo player three nights a week.
By coincidence Dr. Watson had recently attended a bingo hall to help raise money for a charitable organization. He stated," I had never been in such a smoke-filled , polluted , acrid atmosphere in my life," Of the 310 players 304 were smoking. " His conclusion? His patient had recurrant carbon monoxide poisoning from playing bingo. We know that automobile exhausts produce carbon monoxide. But so do cigarettes.
DR. Chris J. Kachulis a specialist in Internal Medicine in California provided more damaging evidence. His patient suffered from irritability , fatigue, depression and an inability to breathe deeply. Studies revealed carbon monoxide had forced oxygen out of her red blood cells forming carboxyhemoglobin. Normal carboxyhemoglobin level (CHL) are about 1.5 per cent. Her level had reached 9 per cent. Equally shocking she was a non-smoker. But she sat with her husband for several hours a day in a poorly ventilated room while he smoked two packs of cigarettes.
Her husband refused to stop smoking. Two years later she was admitted to hospital suffering from a grand mal epileptic seizure. Her CHL had soared to 13 per cent.
Good sense dictates that "Bingo Brains" can also occur after an evening in smoke filled rooms followed by cigarettes in the car. Unlike oxygen , carboxyhemoglobin remains in the blood for four hours. And it's been shown that drivers who have inhaled high levels of the pollutant cannot distinguish relative brightness, lose some ability to judge time intervals and have a slower response to tail lights. They also show impaired performance on some psychomotor tests.
This New Year's Eve drinking and driving will again abruptly terminate the lives of many people. But how many people realize that when they reach for a cigarette while driving they may also be reaching for an accident?
W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com
My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:
Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1
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