Motivating non-drinkers on college campuses to speak out against the harm caused by binge drinking could be an important step towards cutting the rate of alcohol-related problems, according to Boston University School of Public Health researcher Ralph Hingson, Sc.D.

Hingson, author of a new report detailing the costs of alcohol abuse on college campuses, told Join Together that "a lot of the harm that's occurring is to people other than drinkers." For example, while press accounts have zeroed in on the report's finding that 1,400 students die each year from alcohol-related causes, Hingson said that the problems caused by alcohol -- including many of the half-million injuries and 70,000 sexual assaults -- victimize non-drinkers.

"It's not just about the harm drinkers are causing themselves," Hingson said.

In fact, Hingson's report is dedicated to the memory of Jonathan Levy, 20, a Radford College student who was killed in an alcohol-related car crash in October 1997. Levy was driving to a party with a student who had been drinking; the driver lost control of the car and collided head-on with another vehicle. The driver and Levy -- neither of whom was wearing a seat-belt -- were killed, and a rear-seat passenger lost an eye in the crash.

Also killed was a Radford professor, the driver of the other vehicle. "This tells us that people in all segments of the campus can be affected, and that many are affected other than drinking student," Hingson said.

While students overdosing on alcohol and drunk party-goers falling out of dorm buildings get the most attention, Hingson points out that alcohol-related car crashes are the biggest killer of college age students. Further, since unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among people ages 1 to 34, and 38 percent of all unintentional-injury deaths involve alcohol, drinking is "the leading contributor to the leading cause of death of young people in the U.S.," said Hingson.

Fortunately, he said, research conducted over the past decade shows that there are a number of interventions that have proven successful in preventing alcohol-related car crashes and other alcohol-related deaths among young people. Hingson cited as examples .08 percent BAC laws, zero tolerance for underage drinking and driving, strict enforcement of drinking laws, raising the price of alcohol, and controlling liquor-outlet density.

And though it's not a particularly "sexy" issue, Hingson said tougher seatbelt laws could spell the difference between life and death for many young drivers. In states where police have the power to pull drivers over for not wearing a seatbelt, 17 percent more people wear seatbelts, with compliance notably higher among both young people and those who were drinking before they got behind the wheel. Wearing a seatbelt can "cut the risk of death in half" for young drivers, Hingson said.

A number of college presidents served on the federally appointed task force that released Hingson's report, but the author said that U.S. schools are far from monolithic when it comes to addressing the issue of alcohol abuse on campus. "Some colleges have taken this very seriously; some have not," he said. Some schools also have focused their efforts on simply providing students with information about the dangers of drinking, which Hingson described as ineffective.

Brief interventions -- counseling students who show up in trauma centers or university health centers with alcohol-related injuries -- would be far more effective; so would sponsoring events like this week's National Alcohol Screening Day, which will see students on 550 U.S. campuses screened for alcohol abuse.

"What we've been calling for is a comprehensive partnership between campuses and the community to address this issue," Hingson said. Coalition members should include school officials, educators, students, local government, police, and merchants -- including alcohol retailers -- Hingson said. "We particularly need students involved," he said. "The majority of students want tighter regulation around alcohol. We need to give that group a voice."