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A UK Strategy Unit Interim Report on alcohol harm has named the
UK as ‘Europe’s binge drinking capital’. Minister Hazel Blears
said that along with a calculated cost of £7.2bn in terms of crime
and disorder and £1.2bn in health issues, thousands of days of
productivity were lost to drinking related illnesses. The report
also acknowledges, however, that most people drink responsibly
and that moderate drinking helps prevent 22,000 deaths every year
due to its cardio-vascular protection.
Blears believes young people need more education on alcohol. She
added that education and prevention were going to be a big part
of the policy.
Re-enforcing the issues of patterns of drinking, the research
company NFO has found that nearly half of all the alcohol bought
across the bar in Britain is sold on Friday and Saturday nights.
Less than a third is consumed on mid- week nights and Sunday evenings
with the rest being drunk at lunch times, another declining market.
In terms of expenditure, the Irish are the EU’s keenest purchasers
of alcohol and tobacco, considering annual household spending
(Eurostat), spending 6% of their income on alcohol and tobacco
in 2001 and 2000. Second were the Finns, 5.5%, and Denmark third,
4.6% with Britain at 4.1%.
Jean Coussins of the Portman Group said that the drinks industry
is just part of the solution to alcohol misuse. ‘ What is needed
now is action.The Government should develop mass media campaigns
to curb excessive drinking, funded at the same level as drink-drive
campaigns over the years... The reality is, as the Government
analysis acknowledges, is that most people in the UK drink moderately.
Glamorising drunkenness does noone any favours’
The report proceeds the government’s alcohol strategy, which is
due within the next few months. |
