A 21-year-old man named Karthik from Karnataka died after he drank five full bottles of liquor in a row as part of a bet with his friends. His friend Venkata Reddy had challenged him, saying he would give Karthik Rs 10,000 if he could drink all five bottles without mixing alcohol with water.

Karthik took the bet and drank all the liquor. But soon after, he became very sick. His friends rushed him to a hospital in Mulbagal, which is in the Kolar district of Karnataka. Doctors tried to save him, but Karthik died during treatment.

Karthik had been married for just a year. Sadly, his wife had given birth to their baby only eight days before his death.

Police have registered a case at the Nangali police station. Six people, including Venkata Reddy and another friend named Subramani, have been named in the complaint. Both Reddy and Subramani have been arrested. Police are still searching for the other four people involved in the incident.

WHO: "There is no safe level of alcohol consumption"

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), alcohol use leads to the deaths of nearly 2.6 million people every year. This makes up 4.7% of deaths globally. The WHO clearly states that there is no “safe” amount of alcohol that one can drink.

"To identify a 'safe' level of alcohol consumption, valid scientific evidence would need to demonstrate that at and below a certain level, there is no risk of illness or injury associated with alcohol consumption,” the WHO explains in a 2023 report. “Currently available evidence cannot indicate the existence of a threshold at which the carcinogenic effects of alcohol 'switch on' and start to manifest in the human body.”

Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges from the WHO adds, “We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn't matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker's health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is.”

 

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