Tighter booze laws get the thumbs-up from industry

As social development minister Bathabile Dlamini gears up to tighten up this country’s booze laws this year, with a zero reading for blood alcohol level for drivers part of the deal, FTW asked its readers to weigh in on the debate. And the results (see Poll Position below) show overwhelming support for the proposal – which will however be a complicated one to enforce. The current legal limit is a breath alcohol content of 0.24mg per 1 000ml, or a blood alcohol limit of 0.05g per 100ml. There are three units of alcohol in a bottle of Castle, which has an alcohol content of 5%. On average, it takes about one hour for your body to break down one unit of alcohol. So, if you have downed just four bottles of Castle the night before, it will take 12 hours until you are legally fit to drive. But there you are, the next morning, driving to work, and in practical terms stone cold sober. But it’s 11 hours since that last beer, and a random traffic cop check makes you blow into the breathalyser – and you have just a tiny blood/alcohol count. Tiny, but above zero. And suddenly, you have committed a criminal offence which could mean up to six years in prison. Another matter that the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) will finalise this year, she added, involves substance abuse workplace interventions. A move that industry observers happily conceded should do a great deal to increase worker productivity, and, indeed, help heavy drinkers recognise that they may have a problem. Transnet has a breathalyser stationed at the entry gate to port facilities, and if you fail you don’t get in. For the workers this means you don’t work – and no work, no pay. That is financially penalising, sure. But a lack of cash for pitching up to work drunk might make the offending party think twice. And that’s persuasive. It’s a pretty massive problem in SA. A recent review of harmful drinking patterns and level of consumption in 20 African countries ranked SA fourth highest in terms of the proportion of heavy drinkers as a percentage of current drinkers. And it also found that many drinkers drank at problematic levels, particularly over weekends. But in combating this problem in the workplace, SA is still grinding along in first gear, according to Nadine Harker Burnhams of the alcohol and drug abuse research unit at the Medical Research Council. “In SA law (policy),” she said, “there is no single legislation/act that makes specific provision for substance abuse in the workplace,” she said. An American report also pointed out: “It is however treatable, particularly when it is addressed as a chronic disease. Reducing employee substance abuse can help employers improve productivity, reduce workplace injuries, and decrease health care costs.” So, in SA, government involvement in promoting substance abuse workplace interventions may very well go a long way to overcoming all of these challenges. INSERT ‘Substance abuse workplace interventions to be finalised this year.’