Acting Chief Medical Officer Advocates Health and Safety for Carnival

With less than four weeks to go before the 2017 edition of Antigua’s Carnival, the country’s Acting Chief Medical Officer has put forward some pertinent recommendations for fete organisers and patrons to consider.
Dr James Knight said at this time of the year public health and safety workers are concerned about the excessive alcohol consumption by young people and inadequate safety measures at the various street parades. The acting chief medical officer said he has come public with the recommendations early enough so that legislators and organisers are fully aware of the concerns.
During an interview with our newsroom on Tuesday the acting chief medical officer advocated that those who sell alcoholic beverages should do so responsibly  – and bartenders ought to recognise when a person has reached his or her alcohol limit.
“In the case of all-inclusive fetes, if you pay a certain amount of money, the suggestion is that you are given alcohol chits to the value of what you spent. It means that’s the amount of alcohol that you would be consuming – of course, people can give chits to other people and so forth. But at least there is a greater level of control,” Dr Knight said.
Estimating that there are probably thirty annual pre-carnival fetes, Dr. Knight said, “most of them are nothing but rum fetes and are actually advertised as such”. He concluded that most young adults attend these sessions with the notion they can drink their money’s worth.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)