TEN (10) BASIC EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE BODY

It's no secret that excessive alcohol consumption can cause major health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver and injuries sustained in automobile accidents. But if you think liver disease and car crashes are the only health risks posed by drinking, think again: Researchers have linked alcohol consumption to more than 60 diseases.

Here are 10 basic conditions linked to chronic drinking of alcohol:

1. ANAEMIA

Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to be abnormally low. This condition, known as anemia, can trigger a host of symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and lightheadedness.

2.  CANCER

"Habitual drinking increases the risk of cancer," says Jurgen Rehm, PhD, chairman of the University of Toronto's department of addiction policy and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also in Toronto. Scientists believe the increased risk comes when the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a potent carcinogen. Cancer sites linked to alcohol use include the mouth, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus, liver, breast, and colorectal region. Cancer risk rises even higher in heavy drinkers who also use tobacco.

3.  CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Heavy drinking, especially bingeing, makes platelets more likely to clump together into blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. In a landmark study published in 2005, Harvard researchers found that binge drinking doubled the risk of death among people who initially survived a heart attack.

Heavy drinking can also cause cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly condition in which the heart muscle weakens and eventually fails, as well as heart rhythm abnormalities such as atrial and ventricular fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart's upper chambers (atria) twitch chaotically rather than constrict rhythmically, can cause blood clots that can trigger a stroke. Ventricular fibrillation causes chaotic twitching in the heart's main pumping chambers (ventricles). It causes rapid loss of consciousness and, in the absence of immediate treatment, sudden death.

4.  SEIZURES

Heavy drinking can cause epilepsy and can trigger seizures even in people who don't have epilepsy. It can also interfere with the action of the medications used to treat convulsions.

5.  CAUSE DEPRESSION 

It's long been known that heavy drinking often goes hand in hand with depression, but there has been debate about which came first -- the drinking or the depression. One theory is that depressed people turned to alcohol in an attempt to "self-medicate" to ease their emotional pain. But a large study from New Zealand showed that it was probably the other way around -- that is, heavy drinking led to depression.

Research has also shown that depression improves when heavy drinkers go on the wagon, Saitz says.

6.  CIRRHOSIS

Alcohol is toxic to liver cells, and many heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, a sometimes-lethal condition in which the liver is so heavily scarred that it is unable to function. But it's hard to predict which drinkers will develop cirrhosis. "Some people who drink huge amounts never get cirrhosis, and some who don't drink very much do get it," Saitz says. For some unknown reason, women seem to be especially vulnerable.

7. High blood pressure

Alcohol can disrupt the sympathetic nervous system, which, among other things, controls the constriction and dilation of blood vessels in response to stress, temperature, exertion, etc. Heavy drinking -- and bingeing, in particular -- can cause blood pressure to rise. Over time, this effect can become chronic. High blood pressure can lead to many other health problems, including kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke.

8.  PANCREATITIS

In addition to causing stomach irritation (gastritis), drinking can inflame the pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis interferes with the digestive process, causing severe abdominal pain and persistent diarrhea --and "it's not fixable," Saitz says. Some cases of chronic pancreatitis are triggered by gallstones, but up to 60% stem from alcohol consumption.

9. INCREASE IN SUGAR LEVELS

The pancreas helps regulate your body’s insulin use and response to glucose. When your pancreas and liver aren’t functioning properly, you run the risk of experiencing low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. A damaged pancreas may also prevent the body from producing enough insulin to utilize sugar. This can lead to hyperglycemia, or too much sugar in the blood. If your body can’t manage and balance your blood sugar levels, you may experience greater complications and side effects related to diabetes. It’s important for people with diabetes or hypoglycemia to avoid excessive amounts of alcohol.

10.  DEPENDENCY

Some people who drink heavily may develop a physical and emotional dependency on alcohol. Alcohol withdrawal can be difficult and life-threatening. You often need professional help to break an alcohol addiction. As a result, many people seek medical detoxification to get sober. It’s the safest way to ensure you break the physical addiction. Depending on the risk for withdrawal symptoms, detoxification can be managed on either an outpatient or inpatient basis.

CATEGORIES OF RISKS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS MADE SIMPLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISK MANAGERS

Environmental Health officers are trained in risk management that is known in safety as Environmental Health Risks or Health risk (but professionally known in as nuisances)

To ensure that environmental health risks are kept to a minimum, they carry out routine inspections, monitoring and evaluation of the sanitation and hygiene standards of the environment on daily basis. This is aimed at achieving disease prevention, prolonging life, promoting health/safety and hygiene at work place, residences and the society at large. .

However, Environmental Health Officers need to be able to think outside the box so as to understand contemporary environmental health risk and Safety management and in relation to modern day health and safety techniques, strategies and certification.

To achieve the foregoing, let EHOAN in collaboration with EHORECON, vigorously push for more Training, retraining, development and capacity building of the Environmental Health officers so that they can compete favourably with their counterparts in other climes and industry. Foreign training can never be over emphasised for serving Environmental Health Officers, to bring them in line with modern environmental health practice.

Also, EHOAN and EHORECON should form lasting synergy with the National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria (NISCN) , Institute of Safety professionals of Nigeria (ISPN) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, London to help the profession leap forward with the right right kind of certification after training.

Concerted efforts should be made to ensure that standard Safety courses should be introduced into the training curriculum of Environmental Health officers across the country. Such that graduating students would pass out with international safety certification like NEBOSH etc along side WAHEB and other relevant certifications. This will properly position the Environmental Health officer better, in the labour market of today that is very competitive.

Having said that, let us share some tips and definitions in Risk management.

Risk Management is “the process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to risk factors .
There are some risk categories that should interest the environmental health officer. These includes:
 
1. RESIDUAL RISK

Residual risk is the threat that remains after all efforts to identify and eliminate Risk have been made. It is the risk level that remains after additional controls are applied. 
Residual risks are best described as the leftover risks, the minor risks that remain. They are those risks that are expected to remain after the planned response of risk has been taken, as well as those that have been deliberately accepted.

Residual risks are acceptable to most organization’s risk tolerance level.

2.  SPECULATIVE RISK

Speculative risk is a category of risk that can be taken on voluntarily and will either result in a profit or loss. 

All speculative risks are undertaken as a result of a conscious choice. Almost all financial investment activities are examples of speculative risk, because such ventures ultimately result in an unknown amount of success or failure.

Speculative risk can be contracted with pure risk, a category of risk in which the only possible outcome is loss. 

3.  PURE RISK (ABSOLUTE RISK)

Pure risk, also called absolute risk, is a category of threat that is beyond human control and has only one possible outcome if it occurs: loss. Pure risk includes such incidents as natural disasters, fire or untimely death.

4.  OPERATIONAL RISK

Operational risk is the prospect of loss resulting from inadequate or failed procedures, systems or policies. 

• Employee errors

• Systems failures

• Fraud or other criminal activity

• Any event that disrupts business processes.

Most organizations accept that their people and processes will inherently incur errors and contribute to ineffective operations. In evaluating operational risk, practical remedial steps should be emphasized in order to eliminate exposures and ensure successful responses. Poor operational risk management can hurt an organization's reputation and cause financial damage. How much loss an organization is prepared to accept, combined with the cost of correcting those errors, determines the organization's Risk Appetite. 

In Risk Management, Risk Appetite is the level of risk an organization is prepared to accept.

Organizations sometimes express their Risk appetite through the creation of a Risk Appetite statement, a document that helps guide organizational risk management activities.

5.  COMPLIANCE RISK

Compliance risk is exposure to legal penalties, financial forfeiture and material loss an organization faces when it fails to act in accordance with industry laws and regulations, internal policies or prescribed best practices. 

Compliance Risk is also sometimes known as integrity risk. 
Many compliance regulations are enacted to ensure that organizations operate fairly and ethically.
For that reason, Compliance Risk is also known as integrity risk.

SECONDARY RISK
These are those risks that arise as a direct outcome of implementing a risk response. In other words, you identify a risk and have a response plan in place to deal with that risk. Once this plan is implemented, the new risk that may arise from the implementation: that’s a secondary risk. 

-EHSadvisor