Haven't You Had Enough To Drink You Lush, Asks Health Department

You're cut off, says the NYC Health Department, which has just released a heavy new advertisement warning New Yorkers about the dangers of excessive drinking. And how much drinking is considered excessive by their medical standards? If you're a man, they say you're overdoing it if you consume more than two drinks a day or 14 in a one-week period. For women, the upper limits for drinking are one a day or seven over the course of a week. In other words, pretty much everyone you know in New York is a depraved booze-hound.

The new ad, seen here, is part of an ongoing "Excessive Drinking Is Dangerous" campaign launched last year with print and subway ads. This beaut is intended to remind everyone about the potentially awful consequences of drinking too much, ranging from falling onto the subway tracks to regrettable online shopping binges at Forever21.com.

The government says that in 2009, alcohol contributed to more than 8,840 hospitalizations in NYC, an increase of 36% since 2000. Furthermore, alcohol kills an estimated 1,500 New Yorkers each year with related-injuries, poisoning, and violence accounting for 46% of all alcohol-attributable deaths in NYC in 2009. Reached for comment over by the Xbox, our stoner friend says, "And yet alcohol is legal and weed isn't!" Anyway, we apologize for being such a downer, especially around Thanksgiving, when some of us might be inclined to exceed our strict two-drink limit, but forewarned is forearmed. Alcohol is bad, don't do alcohol.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on November 25, 2011 2:10 PM

Comments [rss]

Amy Rollo

NY is a binge drinker's paradise - bars open til 4am, cabs everywhere in Manhattan and a quick phone call in one of the boroughs... it's what kept me in that city for so long.

Now I live in Portland, OR. Binge drinker's secret paradise. Bars may only be open until 2, but happy hour starts at 3pm.

Joey__Blow

I didn't read it that way at all... it meant that AFTER your regular six drinks... did you really need to down those two shots of tequila one after the other? really...

and then run outside and get in your car?

I thought it was that people should stop when they are drunk and not wait until they are hammered....

AdDude56

You are 'absolutely' correct.

Bill_the_Butcher

Agreed.

Tom Fitzsimmons

joe six-pack built this city.

Mark Banish

what they're tryin' to say is Jimmy 5th of Jameson is tearing it down!

JeremiahToo

Most aggressive and arrogant public health administration in our city's history? Completely politicized and eager to misrepresent science to fit the social engineering whims of their political overlords. Many in the public health field are disgusted at NYC's eagerness to distort data to fit their broader agendas. Take a look at the real data on second hand smoke risk someday....

Sulayman

As someone in public health, I think NYC DOHMH is doing a pretty amazing job. We have a really big city filled with various health problems; 200 new people are diagnosed with diabetes every day in NYC, for example. New AIDS cases continue to spring up, particularly amongst minorities.

A black man living in Harlem has a shorter life expectancy than a man living in Bangladesh! The city is working hard to address these statistics, if you call them aggressive, then sure, I want them to do more of it. They're not taking away your freedom, if you still insist on living unhealthy they won't stop you.

JeremiahToo

Ummm.......smoking ban in private establishments and public spaces? Complete distortions of the actual documented risks of second hand smoke indoors (far far smaller than the public has been led to believe) and complete fabrication of non-existent outdoor second hand smoke risk? Do we need to move on to their food police harassing restaurants for contraband trans-fats and meat curing and exiling beloved cats??

Uptight assholes who've put their own social agendas ahead of both science and our basic rights. Another hand guilty in the murder of the real NYC.

ImperialStout

Even as an occasional smoker, I'd rather not breathe in the smoke of others while indoors. And I like when my clothes don't stink up my apartment when I go home.

As for the booze for which this article is about, nobody is telling anyone they CAN'T do something, they're just suggesting you do less of it because it's bad for you. A friendly reminder that you're hurting yourself isn't a bad thing unless you're prone to feeling guilty or are still harboring hard feelings towards your over-protective parents and can't deal with someone telling you you're doing something harmful.

luke_1

Yeah buddy, I don't want your ass smoking near me. I don't care what the science says. By the way, the science is on my side. There is no such thing as a right to smoke cigarettes. Jesus Christ!

I'd love to hear your science explain to me how the smoke you're breathing in is changing as it leaves your body and enters mine.

SuperWittySmitty

Selfish people who feel they can burn things and inhale smoke and pollute the air of anyone standing nearby. I am all for banning smokers from public spaces- they litter and stink up the place, then want us to think that it is their choice to smoke. Actually, they're addicted and cannot control their habit. Fine, go somewhere else where I do not have to breathe your noxious fumes.

Ragingsemi

So I'm an alcoholic if I have 2.5 glasses of wine a night?

"Tim Osman"

But I'm confused alcohol is legal right?

Sulayman

People tend to abuse legal things.

"Tim Osman"

Yeah people tend to abuse all sorts of things, legal or not

tijuanatornado

Sweet, sweet booze, Bloomie won't stop me from enjoying it and drinking it!

odaddyo

More fucking nanny state bullshit. I happy that I'm in my 60s because YOUR fucking future looks very fucking bleak!

Sulayman

Us younger folk hope to outlive your generation's life expectancy because of good Public Health policies. That contributes more to longer life expectancy than any medical breakthroughs.

JeremiahToo

Yes....40 years of walkers and hearing aids capping a previous forty spent staying "healthy" rather than living? Sounds great...enjoy it....