1 PROPOSALS FOR PREVENTION IN SCHOOLS A valid preparation for teachers. Workshops for teachers and health coordinators of middle and high schools with specialists.

The issuing of a questionnaire to be compiled by parents of middle and junior high school pupils prepared by specialists. 2

3 Parent/teacher meetings to inform parents of the risks of alcohol and to single out family situations which are at risk.

4 The aim of these interventions is to strengthen family relationships. Parents have a key role. They should: give a good example, creating a family environment in which alcohol is present but discrete; speak to the children about the dangers of alcohol from an early age - broaching the subject in adolescence could have the opposite effect.

5 The involvement of the family in weekly meeting with specialists with the purpose of understanding what parents and children should expect from each other. Controlling emotions.

6 Scientific preparation of pupils of the junior high school (14/15-year-olds) on: - The metabolism of alcohol - The effects of alcohol - The harm done by alcohol Teach young people that before 15 years of age alcohol cannot be broken down by the digestive system because the enzymatic system is not yet fully developed. Moreover, girls and women in general can only eliminate half the amount of a dose of alcohol compared to men.

After alcohol has been drunk, it passes through the stomach and small intestine and is absorbed into the bloodstream. From there it travels to the rest of the body, including the brain. It is processed out of the body by the liver.

Alcohol is a ‘depressant’. This means it slows down the reactions in your brain. It lowers some of your inhibitions, making you feel reckless. Alcohol affects your physical coordination, reaction times and judgment. It takes the liver one hour to process one unit of alcohol. No matter how fast we drink, the liver can only work at this pace.

7 At evening school classes, talk about the socio- psychological effects of alcohol: discomfort, advertising, effects on driving etc. The effects of alcohol can be felt between 10 and 20 minutes and sooner on an empty stomach. The effects depending on:

how much you drink and how quickly; what you drink (fizzy drinks and stronger drinks such as spirits are absorbed more quickly; how used you are to drinking; your size and weight

your gender – women are more affected by alcohol than men as they tend to be smaller and have more relative body fat and less water in their body. As a result the concentration of alcohol is higher

Young women should know that alcohol is harmful to the Foetus. The unborn child does not have the enzymatic system capable of breaking it down. Two glasses of an alcoholic beverage are sufficient to compromise the child’s health and destroy the neurons of the brain still in formation.