One-in-three 15-year-olds 'are binge drinkers'

A THIRD of 15-year-olds are binge drinking almost every week, topping Europe's list of most experienced teen drinkers.

Irish girls between the ages of 15 and 16 years are the heaviest drinkers in a survey of 30 countries, including the US.

The study, carried out for the Institute for Alcohol Studies in the UK, questioned the teenagers about their drinking habits during the previous month.

A third of the girls and 31% of the boys claimed they had been binge drinking three times or more during the last month.

Irish youths were second only to the Dutch where 37% of male teens said they had been drinking almost weekly when queried during 2003.

Binge drinking is usually defined as having five or more drinks in a row for boys and four or more for girls.

Dublin Fine Gael TD and MEP, Gay Mitchell described the findings as disturbing.

"The amount of Irish teenagers overindulging on a regular basis is a major concern. The abuse of alcohol by our young people is alarming," he said.

The figures released by the British institute also show that during 2004 young Irish men aged between 18 and 29 years drank an average of 18 litres of pure alcohol. This is equivalent to 1,800 bottles of beer or 70 bottles of spirits such as vodka or whiskey.

It is double the average figure for young French men in the same age bracket and higher than Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Finland.

Young Irish women aged from 18 to 29 years were drinking considerably less than their male counterparts but still consumed far more than women of the same age in other countries.

The institute calculated that they drank eight litres of pure alcohol during 2004 which is the equivalent of 80 bottles of wine or 28 bottles of spirits or about 480 bottles of beer.

This is four times the average figure for French women of the same age and again Irish women drank more than their contemporaries in Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Finland.

"The future implications for society as a result of underage drinking and alcohol abuse, particularly among the under-25s, is approaching chaotic levels. Alcohol is closely connected with a large number of accidents, with 40% to 60% of all deaths in Europe being attributed to alcohol consumption," said Mr Mitchell.

He believes the answer is to provide more youth facilities such as the BASE facility in Ballyfermot where young people can have a choice of alternative attractions, such as music and computers.

Research into the effects on young people of binge drinking shows they are more likely to miss school, fall behind in studies, are more open to suffering mental disorders including compulsiveness, depression or anxiety and to early deviant behaviour.

A US study found binge drinkers consider themselves to be moderate or light drinkers.