ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602200070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's on your mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: The recent death of a college student because of alcohol poisoning brings up this question: Just how much alcohol does one have to drink to get alcohol poisoning?
C.S., Roanoke
A: The amount that's consumed is less critical than the speed at which it goes down, according to experts in the medical community.
There are other variables, including the body weight of the consumer and the person's tolerance for alcohol.
Basically, the average person metabolizes about one drink per hour. Drink faster than that, and intoxication starts to occur fairly rapidly.
Most party guests find it hard to drink slowly at events held by teen-agers and college students, where it's likely that most people are drinking to get drunk.
The situation gets dangerous when a challenge or some other incentive is given for people to drink faster.
Usually, a person gets drunk and passes out.
If a lot of alcohol is consumed in just a few minutes (chug-a-lug contests come to mind), the body's passing-out defense may not act soon enough.
With the alcohol already in the stomach, it continues to be absorbed into the bloodstream, where it can kill.
What brought those gulls here?
Q: When I was a kid growing up 20 to 30 years ago, I never saw sea gulls in the Roanoke Valley. Now there are lots of gulls along the river and around lakes, ponds and parking lots. What brought the gulls here?
N.N., Roanoke
A: The gulls usually seen around Roanoke are ring-billed gulls, and they flocked in great numbers to the regional landfill on Rutrough Road.
Ring-billed gulls range far inland and are scavengers.
Occasionally they are joined by herring gulls, the variety commonly called sea gulls - though that's a misnomer that prompts bird watchers to say there are many varieties of gulls and none is named for the sea.
Since the landfill closed in 1994, the ring-billed gulls are seen more often in Roanoke-area mall parking lots. They frequent trash bins, especially those behind seafood restaurants.
These gulls also like to descend on hayfields and freshly plowed ground in search of insects. Urban duck ponds are attractive, too.
They liked the landfill, though, possibly because those large yellow beaks with the black ring near the tip are excellent tools for picking apart food containers.
What brought these gulls here in the past 30 years?
Two possible reasons come to mind: Smith Mountain Lake was filled about 30 years ago, and it was a beacon to migrating gulls, and other shore birds too.
In 1974, the landfill opened on Rutrough Road, offering a daily repast just five miles from the lake, as the gull flies.
Have a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RoatimesInfi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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