On New Year’s Eve, people want to know their blood alcohol content

„From December 30, 2009 to January 2, 2010, the service answered 1,886 requests, on average 472 per day, while this year’s average daily number of requests is 125. The service is used a lot more during the New Year’s Eve celebration,“ says Jiří Richter, Executive Director of the civic association SANANIM, operator of the service.

Other statistics about New Year’s Eve celebrations show that the number of users of the service who consume alcohol responsibly is growing – whether regarding the responsible amount of alcohol or concerns about the amount of time required to sober up.

Throughout the year, about a third of consumers of alcohol who send a request have no alcohol in their blood when they send the request, while on New Year’s Eve those who have consumed alcohol make up close to half of requests. During this time, the average age of users also increases from 30 years old to close to 35. On the other hand, the number of users who have more than 1% of alcohol in their blood increases during this time.

„More users want to be sure that they are at zero. Also, more people probably consume larger volumes of alcohol than during any other time during the year, but they at least care more then ever about the time frame that it takes to sober up,“ comments Jiří Richter

The fact that the service is used a lot more during this time of year and the fact that smart phones were a popular present this year inspired operators to develop the service for smart phone users. When you enter the following address (www.promile.info) on your smart phone, you will see a page with a calculator of the Promile INFO service in a mobile version.

The one indicator which does not change during December and January is the percentage of male and female users of the Promile INFO service, which remains 80:20.

How does Promile INFO work

• The service is run via text messages, WAP or the Internet, www.promile.info
• How can you use the service from your cell phone? Based on a simple guideline through the JAVA application, the user will send a text message with a  request with information about his or her sex, age, weight, about when he/she began consumption of alcoholic beverages, what kind of alcoholic beverages were consumed and in what amounts.
• Within a minute, the user will receive a response with information about his or her current blood alcohol content together with an approximate time that suggests when that level will drop to zero. Part of the response contains brief information about the risks tied to the level of alcohol in one’s blood.
• One Promile INFO costs 9 Kč (0.47 USD). The money will support programs for prevention and treatment of addictions at the SANANIM civic association as well as development and management of the actual service.
• The main partner of the service is Plzeňský Prazdroj, a leading beer company in Central Europe, which promotes responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Civic association SANANIM

The civic association SANANIM is one of the oldest in the Czech Republic (established in 1990) and today it is also the biggest provider of non–governmental services in the field of prevention, care, treatment and integration of patients addicted to non–alcoholic drugs. Currently it administers 11 main centres – field programs, contact centres, the specialized outpatient service CADAS, daily social welfare institutions, the therapeutic communities Karlov and Němčice, aftercare centres with apartments and a workshop, the Centre For People In Conflict With Law, Agency for Employment and Social Services, Consulting Room for Parents, while offering a number of various and supplementary projects or programs. Among some of the most important ones are telematic consulting and information services (a drug information centre, Promile INFO, Alkotest etc.), a field program for the Roma and a program for mothers with children. Other projects focus mainly on education, primary prevention, publication of articles and international cooperation.

Plzeňský Prazdroj as a  responsible beer producer

Plzeňský Prazdroj a.s. takes an active part in the prevention of negative consequences of excessive or unacceptable alcohol consumption and helps advocate responsible attitudes towards alcohol consumption, whether it be independently or as part of the Initiative of Responsible Breweries. With a total sale of 10.5 million hectolitres in the 2009 calendar year (including licensed production abroad) and with exports to more than 50 countries, Plzeňský Prazdroj a. s. is the leading producer of beer in Czech Republic and the biggest exporter of Czech beer. Plzeňský Prazdroj is a member of SABMiller PLC, one of the world’s largest beer companies.

For more information:

Josef Šedivý, civic association, SANANIM
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Ph. no: +420 602 311 799

Jiří Mareček, Manager external communication, Plzeňský Prazdroj, a.s.
Email:
Ph. no: +420 724 617 219

Prague