A LECTURE on the destructive evils of alcohol abuse might not immediately gather a large audience on the weekend before Christmas reaches a festive climax, but a warning from a liver specialist on the consequences of excessive drinking cannot be wisely ignored.

The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is a crucial response to one of our most significant public health problems. Alcohol misuse claims three lives every day in Ireland and we all know someone who has been affected in a harmful way by alcohol use — it is all too common.

Young people are drinking increasingly dangerous amounts of alcohol, junior health minister Kathleen Lynch warned yesterday as she called for a national conversation about excessive boozing.

An alliance of doctors, HSE experts, youth leaders,and campaigners are backing an Oireachtas Health Committee report on the forthcoming Alcohol Bill.

Doing what I do on a daily basis I was surprised to see the editorial in last Saturday’s edition, worrying if we were putting tourists off coming to Ireland because of the high cost of wine in our restaurants.

A leading hepatologist says young women are now binge-drinking at the same rate as men.

A leading liver expert has called for a ban on supermarket meal deals that include heavily discounted wine, as medics prepare for a surge in the number of women suffering alcohol- related diseases.

As alcoholic liver disease rises, particularly in younger people, fewer than one in 10 college students said they would curb their drinking for the good of their health.

A MAN died hours after fracturing his skull in a fall in a hospital toilet, an inquest heard yesterday.

A COMMON drug used in Ireland to ease arthritis pain was linked yesterday to acute liver failure in an elderly widow who died last year.