Alcohol Use Likely Culprit In Hot Tub Drownings
"You get into a hot tub to relax and you drink to relax. When you put those two things together, you get more than you bargain for," Jonathan Howland, an epidemiologist at Boston University and a national expert on death by drowning, told the Times. "The heat leads to dilation of the blood vessels, along with the alcohol. People are basically having a drop of blood pressure and having the equivalent of a faint," said Howland.
Tony Gomez, manager of the Injury and Violence Prevention Division at the Seattle Public Health Department told the Times that up to 70 percent of all hot tub and pool drownings involving adults that are investigated by his department are alcohol-related.