Call to curb alcohol adverts in Britain

ACTION to curb alcohol adverts was called for yesterday by a leading expert concerned about the scale of Britain’s drink problem.

A million British men and women are treated in hospital for injuries suffered after drinking every weekend, Professor Colin Drummond estimated. Most were the result of fights, assaults and road accidents.

Alcohol misuse had soared among young people aged 18 to 24 in the last decade, with women's drinking rising much quicker than men's, said Prof Drummond.

Slick adverts which associated alcoholic drinks with sex and high living had to bear part of the blame, he said.

Speaking at Britain's biggest science meeting, he said: "The worrying trend is upwards. If you look at young males aged 18 to 24 years old over the last 12 years, there's been a 32% increase in alcohol misuse in that group. But for young women of the same age there's been a 70% increase.

"I don't think it's a Bridget Jones phenomenon. There are huge marketing effects taking place, with the drinks industry making drinks more attractive to women."

Prof Drummond, from St George's Hospital Medical School in London, said his team had surveyed 32 accident and emergency departments across Britain.

The study found that in one night spanning Saturday and Sunday, 40% of people attending the A&E departments had been involved in alcohol-related incidents.

Extrapolating from this figure, it emerged that over a typical Friday and Saturday night around a million Britons received hospital treatment for alcohol-related injuries.

"The vast majority are young white males involved in fights and drinking," said Professor Drummond.

There had been a 25% increase in alcohol-related deaths in the last 10 years, he added.

Speaking at the British Association Festival of Science at Salford University, he drew strong parallels between tobacco companies and alcoholic drink manufacturers.

He did not think placing cigarette-style health warnings on drink bottles would help but he said he wanted to see more control over advertising.

"I think some of the more extreme forms of advertising should be restricted," he said.

He thought another effective measure might be to raise the drinking age limit, which is now 18 in Britain.

In the United States raising the limit from 18 to 21 had led to a dramatic reduction in road accident deaths.

Another option was to follow the example of Scandinavian countries, where the high cost of alcohol reduced levels of misuse.

Prof Drummond said alcohol posed a much bigger problem in Britain than illicit drugs, but was relatively ignored.

A third of British men and a fifth of women now habitually drank more than the Government's safe limits for alcohol 21 units per week for men and 14 for women.