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Issue date: 3/30/06

Elaine Pasqua educates students on safe sex and STDS.

In an experiment to show how inebriation can hinder safe sex practices, one University student was strapped with beer goggles and asked to place a condom onto a plastic penis.

"Alcohol is the number one high-risk behavior," said Elaine Pasqua, who spoke about AIDS at Hofstra USA Monday night. "After only five minutes of having one drink, the alcohol reaches the brain and greatly decreases a person's inhibitions."

To further illustrate the dangers of alcohol, Pasqua asked one student to wear goggles simulating a 0.08 blood alcohol level, which affected coordination. He was unable to walk in a straight line.

Since losing her mother and stepfather to AIDS, Pasqua has been spreading the message that AIDS is "everyone's disease."

Date rape drugs was another topic touched upon during the lecture, "Surviving the Party," in Hofstra USA Monday night. Pasqua said it only takes 15 minutes for these drugs to take effect. She suggested going to parties with trustworthy people and not leaving drinks unattended.

"This is the coward's way to have sex," Pasqua said. "They don't want to wine or dine you, they just want to get lucky."

Pasqua asked everyone to participate in a fluid exchange exercise, where students picked up a cup containing either water or sodium hydroxide, representing HIV. Since both liquids are clear, students did not know which they had.

"The fluid exchange exercise allowed students to experience and feel things that they would never get from a lecture," Pasqua said.

Students mixed their liquids with three others to simulate exchanging bodily fluids through sex. Afterward, each cup was tested with phenophaline; if the liquid turned pink, the student had contracted HIV. The number of cups containing sodium hydroxide, rose from four to 25.

"Think about how difficult it would be to tell someone you love that you have HIV," she said.

Pasqua said 65 million people have an incurable STD, 25 percent under 21 have an STD and nearly 40,000 cases of HIV arise each year in the United States.

"People will do and say what they want for their own sexual gain," Pasqua said. "One night can change your life. Don't blow the opportunities that lay ahead."

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