Dangerous to mix alcohol and the sea

Alcohol has been implicated as the main contributing factor in many drowning cases.

Just like alcohol has the power to make you feel falsely confident behind the wheel of a vehicle, it can also make you take unnecessary risks while in the water.

Drinking and swimming are a lethal combination.

Alcohol in your system when swimming can cause you to experience a false sense of security. Your senses will become impaired, which can lead to foolish risk-taking in the water. You may experience disorientation and confusion, as alcohol drastically slows down the rate at which your brain processes information.

Your sense of distance and direction will be altered, leaving you vulnerable to changing currents when sea bathing.

If you have been drinking, even if you have only had a glass of wine, or one beer, or any other kind of alcoholic drink, you should wait for at least an hour before taking part in water-based activities.

More than half of all water recreation deaths involve alcohol.

Once a person in an inebriated state is involved in an accident in the water, emergency personnel usually depend on the person’s general health to assist in recuperation and recovery. If the body is unable to function normally due to alcohol consumption, simple resuscitation procedures such as CPR won’t work.

Walking is one of the simplest exercises one can undertake and this activity usually becomes challenging after the consumption of alcohol. That is why swimming while under the influence of alcohol can never result in anything beneficial.

In addition to contributing to sudden temperature changes that can greatly disorient a person, alcohol also makes reactions drag out, thereby making it impossible a person to save himself in the event of an emergency.

Alcohol has been detected in the blood of a large number of the people who drowned.

Alcohol makes one more confident but less co-ordinated — a dangerous combination.

SIMON WRIGHT Chaguanas