The sharp rise in in alcohol-related deaths is likely to continue unless people in the UK can find some way to reverse their drinking habits, said Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Royal College of Physicians’ alcohol committee.
“The college supports the government’s harm reduction strategy but if voluntary partnerships with industry and public education are not proving effective, the next step is direct intervention on issues such as availability of alcohol, price increases and restrictions on advertising,” Gilmore said in a statement issued through the RCP website.
Drink-related deaths have more than doubled in ten years, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday. But Gilmore says figures are an under-estimate of the full amount of deaths, as they only relate to deaths caused directly by alcohol. If indirect causes are taken into account the number of deaths could be three or four times higher.
“Clearly the figures are disturbing and disappointing, but frankly not too surprising, since they fit with other data coming out,” Gilmore said in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today, citing hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease, figures for ‘binge-drinking’ and the fact that people in the UK are drinking more year-on-year – probably a litre of pure alcohol per head more than 1991.
“We don’t really fully understand why we have the binge culture that we are seeing,” he said. “The main drivers are price and availability and price in real terms it’s never been cheaper and it’s never been so available.”
Although higher taxes on alcohol “wouldn’t be top of popularity list”, the nation has to open a debate on the possibility. “There would be a lot to be said for establishing prices at roughly where they were ten or twenty years ago, at least in real terms.”
Gilmore said pubic information programmes have on the whole been ineffective. Although most people do have an idea of the safe limits on alcohol, few know about the consequences of exceeding these limits. “One of the tragedies of liver disease, is patients get no warning before they present with irreparable liver damage.”
Although the UK is in the middle of the ranking for teenage binge-drinking, consumption among UK teenagers is rising, while in France, Germany and Italy consumption is falling.
The news came after pubs were urged in early July to support a new partnership between the industry and the government aimed at raising awareness of responsible drinking. Building on the Drinkaware brand already established on billions of drinks bottles and cans, the Drinkaware Trust will seek to promote sensible drinking across the UK.
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