Expert: El Paso not drunkest city in US The Drunkest City in Each State article published on Wednesday states that 56.2 percent of adults in El Paso metropolitan area binge or heavy drink—making El Paso the drunkest city in the nation

Aileen B. Flores | El Paso Times

Contrary to what a website reported, El Paso is not the drunkest city in the nation.

Jon Law, president of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation — a nonprofit organization that focuses on the community's health behaviors — said that the recent article by Delaware-based online publication 24/7 Wall St. that stated El Paso is the drunkest city in Texas and the nation was inaccurate.

The false statement could create a negative stereotype for the community, he said.

Law said the Texas Department of State Health Services conducted a study that estimates 16 percent of people in the El Paso metropolitan area, which includes El Paso and Hudspeth counties, drink excessively.

The Drunkest City in Each State article published Wednesday stated that 56.2 percent of adults in the El Paso metropolitan area binge or drink heavily — making the border city the drunkest city not only in Texas but in the nation.

The reference to El Paso has since been removed from the online report.

It now lists Corpus Christi as the drunkest city in Texas, with 27.5 percent of adults engaging in binge or heavy drinking. It also lists Dubuque, Iowa, as leading the U.S. in binge or heavy drinking, with 30.8 percent of adults taking part. Dubuque previously was ranked second.

“The 16 percent is a concern and it’s something that as a health foundation we are working to address, but a 56 percent is, from all evidence we have, inaccurate,” Law said.

"I don’t know the estimates for all the cities in the United States, but I would be surprised if there are very many cities where more than 30 percent of the population is considered to binge drink and to report that in El Paso over half of the community is binge drinking, it’s pretty extreme. That says that one of every two adults in this community is binge drinking,” he added.

Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion in less than 30 days, Law said.

To determine the drunkest city in each state, the authors of the article used the latest data involving excessive drinking, length of life, and poor or fair health provided by the County Health Rankings, a report done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

The 2015 County Health Rankings, which were released in April, show that 17 percent of adults in El Paso reported binge or heavy drinking compared with 16 percent in Texas and 10 percent in the U.S.

Meanwhile, in Hudspeth County, the report shows 56 percent of adults reported excessive drinking.

It's not known whether the authors of the article included Hudspeth County data to calculate the drinking levels in the El Paso area.

The El Paso Times reached out to Editor-in-Chief and CEO Douglas A. McIntyre of 24/7 Wall St. for a comment on the findings of the article, but a response was not obtained before deadline Friday.

Law said there was a report in 2013 that estimated that 56 percent of adults in Hudspeth County binge or drink heavily; however, the sample was not strong enough to make it viable.

“They only had 80 respondents and that’s not a strong enough sample to make an estimate for a county … that’s not a fair estimate for Hudspeth County,” he said.

Law said The Paso del Norte Health Foundation is worried about the negative impact the 24/7 Wall St. article could have on El Paso's image.

“We are concerned because border communities often experience negative stereotypes, but in this case I would hate to see a stereotype exacerbated that is based on false data,” Law said.

“That to me is very dangerous in particular because we have a community that is mostly Hispanic. It could create very unfair, inappropriate stereotypes of Hispanics in the U.S.,” he added.

USA Today in April reported the findings of a study by the American Journal of Public Health on heavy and binge drinking in which Menominee County in Wisconsin was the number one county in the nation in binge drinking with 36 percent.

Aileen B. Flores may be reached at 546-6362; aflores@elpasotimes.com; @AileenBFlores on Twitter.