Teh One Who Knocks
07-02-2012, 10:39 AM
By Daniel Martin - The Daily Mail
http://i.imgur.com/Znl3G.jpg
Teenage girls in Britain are more likely to be binge drinkers than anywhere else in Europe, according to a devastating dossier on our nation’s problems with alcohol.
More than half of girls aged 15 and 16 say they drink to excess at least once a month.
The shocking figure also means the UK is one of the few countries where the girls binge-drink more than boys.
The paper, drawn up by the Department of Health, also revealed that the debilitating effects of drink cost the UK economy more than £21billion a year.
The NHS now spends £3.5billion a year dealing with drink – up 30 per cent in just three years – thanks to a relentless rise in the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions. In 2003, our death rate from chronic liver disease overtook that of France for the first time.
In its submission to a Commons health select committee inquiry, the Department of Health also warns more than 60 diseases and conditions – including heart disease, stroke, liver disease and cancer – can be directly linked to alcohol.
It warns that young adults who ‘pre-load’ on drink at home before they go out to the pub are more likely to get involved in crime.
The 33-page submission cites a 2007 report of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs, which questioned children across the continent on how much they drink.
In the research, overall British children aged 15 and 16 were the fifth most likely in Europe to have had a binge-drinking episode – defined as having had five or more drinks on at least one occasion – in the previous month.
http://i.imgur.com/Iilwh.jpg
However, among girls aged 15 and 16, Britain comes out worst – with 55 per cent of girls saying they had drunk to excess over the month, the worst figure in Europe.
Among boys, the figure is 52 per cent. For boys and girls overall, the UK is behind only Malta, Portugal, Estonia and Latvia.
The survey found Danish children drank more, but this was dismissed as an unreliable figure by researchers because the sample size in that country was so small.
The DoH submission said: ‘The UK is consistently in the top five European countries for binge drinking and drunkenness among school children.’
The paper blamed the availability of cheap drink in supermarkets for the pre-loading trend, which it said was having ‘significant impacts on health and crime’.
http://i.imgur.com/TfWqn.jpg
It adds: ‘In a recent study, 66 per cent of 17- to 30-year-olds arrested in a city in England claimed to have pre-loaded before a night out, with pre-loaders two-and-a-half times more likely to be involved in violence than other drinkers.
‘This has contributed to a fifth of all violent incidents in or around a pub or club.’
Every year, drink costs the nation £21billion – £11billion in crime, £3.5billion for the NHS, and £7.3billion in lost productivity such as sickness absence and premature deaths, the submission said.
In just three years, the NHS bill rose by 30 per cent, from £2.7billion. The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions has risen by 4 per cent a year every year from 2002 to 2010.
Liver disease – usually linked to alcohol – costs the NHS £1billion a year, the paper said.
About 9 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women are drinking at harmful levels, or more than 50 units and 35 units a week, it said.
‘More than 90 per cent who sustain drinking at these levels will go on to develop excessive fat accumulation in their livers – this is reversible if drinking is reduced but, if not, 15 to 30 per cent of those will develop more serious inflammation, and up to 10 per cent could develop cirrhosis. The Government believes such severe financial pressure on the NHS from liver disease, as this is a preventable illness, is unacceptable.
‘The rate of liver deaths in the UK has nearly quadrupled over 40 years; a very different trend from most other European countries.’
An estimated 1.6million people are moderately or severely dependent on alcohol – up 24 per cent between 2000 and 2007.
Alcohol-specific deaths soared 30 per cent between 2001 and 2010 – at the same time as deaths from all causes fell by 7 per cent.
Drinking before the age of 15 carries a series of possible health risks and other harms, including truancy, exclusion and lower educational attainment; involvement in violence; suicidal thoughts and attempts; sexually transmitted infections; and problems in getting and keeping a job.
http://i.imgur.com/Znl3G.jpg
Teenage girls in Britain are more likely to be binge drinkers than anywhere else in Europe, according to a devastating dossier on our nation’s problems with alcohol.
More than half of girls aged 15 and 16 say they drink to excess at least once a month.
The shocking figure also means the UK is one of the few countries where the girls binge-drink more than boys.
The paper, drawn up by the Department of Health, also revealed that the debilitating effects of drink cost the UK economy more than £21billion a year.
The NHS now spends £3.5billion a year dealing with drink – up 30 per cent in just three years – thanks to a relentless rise in the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions. In 2003, our death rate from chronic liver disease overtook that of France for the first time.
In its submission to a Commons health select committee inquiry, the Department of Health also warns more than 60 diseases and conditions – including heart disease, stroke, liver disease and cancer – can be directly linked to alcohol.
It warns that young adults who ‘pre-load’ on drink at home before they go out to the pub are more likely to get involved in crime.
The 33-page submission cites a 2007 report of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs, which questioned children across the continent on how much they drink.
In the research, overall British children aged 15 and 16 were the fifth most likely in Europe to have had a binge-drinking episode – defined as having had five or more drinks on at least one occasion – in the previous month.
http://i.imgur.com/Iilwh.jpg
However, among girls aged 15 and 16, Britain comes out worst – with 55 per cent of girls saying they had drunk to excess over the month, the worst figure in Europe.
Among boys, the figure is 52 per cent. For boys and girls overall, the UK is behind only Malta, Portugal, Estonia and Latvia.
The survey found Danish children drank more, but this was dismissed as an unreliable figure by researchers because the sample size in that country was so small.
The DoH submission said: ‘The UK is consistently in the top five European countries for binge drinking and drunkenness among school children.’
The paper blamed the availability of cheap drink in supermarkets for the pre-loading trend, which it said was having ‘significant impacts on health and crime’.
http://i.imgur.com/TfWqn.jpg
It adds: ‘In a recent study, 66 per cent of 17- to 30-year-olds arrested in a city in England claimed to have pre-loaded before a night out, with pre-loaders two-and-a-half times more likely to be involved in violence than other drinkers.
‘This has contributed to a fifth of all violent incidents in or around a pub or club.’
Every year, drink costs the nation £21billion – £11billion in crime, £3.5billion for the NHS, and £7.3billion in lost productivity such as sickness absence and premature deaths, the submission said.
In just three years, the NHS bill rose by 30 per cent, from £2.7billion. The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions has risen by 4 per cent a year every year from 2002 to 2010.
Liver disease – usually linked to alcohol – costs the NHS £1billion a year, the paper said.
About 9 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women are drinking at harmful levels, or more than 50 units and 35 units a week, it said.
‘More than 90 per cent who sustain drinking at these levels will go on to develop excessive fat accumulation in their livers – this is reversible if drinking is reduced but, if not, 15 to 30 per cent of those will develop more serious inflammation, and up to 10 per cent could develop cirrhosis. The Government believes such severe financial pressure on the NHS from liver disease, as this is a preventable illness, is unacceptable.
‘The rate of liver deaths in the UK has nearly quadrupled over 40 years; a very different trend from most other European countries.’
An estimated 1.6million people are moderately or severely dependent on alcohol – up 24 per cent between 2000 and 2007.
Alcohol-specific deaths soared 30 per cent between 2001 and 2010 – at the same time as deaths from all causes fell by 7 per cent.
Drinking before the age of 15 carries a series of possible health risks and other harms, including truancy, exclusion and lower educational attainment; involvement in violence; suicidal thoughts and attempts; sexually transmitted infections; and problems in getting and keeping a job.