No Need to Ban Water Pong
By Kenan Yount
Published on Tuesday, February 6, 2007
To the Editor:
I have to say, I've never heard so much laughter from students reading along on my computer screen as when the headline "Water pong banned, risks of overhydrating cited" (Feb. 5) popped up on my laptop -- from a crowd of medical students and doctors, no less.
Water intoxication is certainly a risk with an excessive water intake and can be very serious when it occurs. However, banning water pong on safety and health concerns for water intoxication is among the most ludicrous things I have ever heard. In four years at Dartmouth, I never actually saw people who had to resort to water pong actually drink their water. Most just threw it out or recycled it -- unlike in actual beer pong. Given this crucial reality, I find it highly unlikely that water pong would predispose Dartmouth students to excessive water intake capable of producing hyponatremia. Granted, I'm unaware of any sophisticated studies documenting a link between the two.
However, I am certainly aware that the New England Journal of Medicine has documented that endurance athletes run a substantially higher risk of hyponatremia. I look forward to Community Director Deal's next crusade to ban track, cross-country and marathons at Dartmouth.