Baseball. Motherhood. Apple pie. (or is it baseball, hotdogs, apple pie & Chevrolet?). But what about alcohol? After all, it's a time honored American tradition to drink a beer or some other alcoholic beverage as we stand around the grill celebrating our country's Independence Day. Then after an afternoon & evening of camaraderie, we pile into our cars for the drive home. It's been a few hours since our last alcoholic drink so our blood alcohol concentration (BAC) should be well below the 0.08% limit set in the States to be considered too drunk to drive. Therefore, we're safe (drivers), right? Not like those losers who kept drinking and now need to be driven home. 
As it turns out, in a study published early online last month, the authors concluded that having a BAC of just 0.01% is enough to increase one's risk of a fatal motor vehicle collision (it's not an accident because it could have been avoided!). Was this a valid study? Well, the numbers are on their side: 1,495,667 deaths from motor vehicle collisions between 1994 & 2008 were analyzed to determine risk of death for any level of alcohol content, down to a negligible 0.01%. Far be it for me to be a safety or control freak but I never check BAC on my friends & relatives before they leave our house after a party. Now I'd hate to think that some drove home buzzed although I'm happy to report that no one ever drove home drunk.
So on this day that we celebrate our 4th of July, let's think very carefully before deciding who's driving home. Don't let the sacrifices of our sons & daughters, brothers & sisters, fathers & mothers, and friends & family on soil, domestic & foreign, be in vain. And don't forget to thank them for their service.
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