Welcome  to  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. It's  been  more  than  25  years  since  the  federal  government mandated  that  the  legal  minimum  drinking  age  be  21. Prior  to  that,  in  some  states, the  minimum  age  was  as  low  as  18. Since  April  is  Alcohol  awareness  month. It  seems  appropriate  to  consider the  impact  this  change  has  had  on  public  health. Tobin  Nelson,  a  University  of  Minnesota epidemiologist,  provides  his  perspective. It's  easy  to  forget  how  bad  things were  before  the  law  changed  back  in  the  1970s, a  considerable  proportion  of motor  vehicle  crashes  were  alcohol involved  and  ended  up taking  the  lives  of  many  of  our  young  people. Nelson  adds  that  more  work  needs  to  be  done  now  to reduce  the  amount  of  binge drinking  among  college  students. We  haven't  done  much  in  the  way  of  trying to  control  the  sources  of  alcohol. And  that  includes  things  like  raising  the  excise  tax, mandatory  responsible  beverage  service  training, looking  at  the  number  of  alcohol  outlets  in  a  given  area. As  well  as  enforcing existing  laws  around  alcohol  impaired  driving, and  laws  around  underage  drinking. With  another  public  health  moment,  I'm  John  Finnegan.