[Adolescents alcohol related traffic accidents and mortality in 1999-2000--problem and solutions]

There are a number of factors that give traffic accidents and injuries a prominent position among public health agenda. Injuries, major public health challenge throughout the world and which account for 10% of global mortality, are often ignored as a major cause of death and may require innovative strategies to reduce their toll. Traffic accidents prevention traditionally have been as the domain of law enforcement, societal responses have primarily been a repressive or containment nature. The role of the health sector has tended to be limited to one of treatment and disability prevention, or in other words, damage control. Global Status Report on alcohol use 2001 revealed that drinking has risen steadily among young people in Japan and children between the ages of 13 and 17 have drunk to intoxication or unconsciousness. It also appears that young people in Japan are beginning to drink at earlier ages, while research has found earlier initiation of alcohol use to be associated alcohol dependence and alcohol related injury in later in life. Motor vehicle traffic accidents are a leading cause of death among children, adolescents and young adults between 16 and 20 years of age even though high school students were prohibited from having drivers licenses by internal school rules, this age group was the primary responsible party for 30% of accidents and fatal accidents in 2000. This underlies the fact that how significant role they play as a contributors to the overall traffic problem in Japan. Unlike major causes of deaths such as cancer and heart diseases and despite the critical problem in public health, there are few epidemiological studies on youth involvement in traffic accidents, morbidity and mortality in Japan.