Bid To Crack-Down On Binge-Drinking Epidemic

WALES’ leading doctor has hit out at the nation’s booze culture after figures showed a dramatic rise in binge-drinking.

In a stark warning about the state of the nation’s drink problem as Christmas approaches, the country’s chief medical officer today warns that alcohol could cause the same level of health problems as tobacco.

His warnings come as figures show more than a quarter of adults are binge-drinkers in Wales – up from one in five in the space of a year. And children and teenagers are turning to drink, with almost a quarter of 13-year-old boys and one in five girls now drinking at least once a week.

Dr Jewell said: “Alcohol is the emerging problem, particularly in young people and because of binge-drinking.

“Smoking is gradually declining but alcohol use is increasing, binge-drinking is increasing.”

And to combat Wales’ booze epidemic, the top doc wants to see a series of strong measures to crack down on drunks – including alcohol education for serious boozers and controls on pubs and clubs that serve sozzled revellers.

Wynford Ellis Owen, chief executive of the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs, said the recession had caused many people to turn to booze.

“There is a sense of hopelessness pervading the country – people see this country’s massive debt and the lack of career prospects for them,” he said.

“People cannot abide confronting the burden of being human and want to escape so they resort to alcohol and other drugs.

“It lessens the hopelessness and pain of living in the short term but it is only temporary.”

Alcohol, including binge-drinking, is behind 45,000 hospital admissions in Wales every year and plays a role in 1,000 deaths a year – especially in young men.

Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the British Medical Association, said: “Binge drinking and alcoholic dependency in general are – like smoking – major factors that account for increased levels of ill-health in Wales.

“Healthcare professionals see first hand the health impacts of alcohol – go to the A&E department in any hospital in Wales and the effects of alcoholism and binge drinking, especially at weekends and by young people, are not just apparent but acute and routine.”

Dr Tony Jewell will this week put forward new measures to clamp down on binge drinking in Wales.

This includes all hospitals in Wales passing on information about pubs and clubs that sell booze to drunk customers.

A similar scheme piloted in Cardiff has helped to reduce violence and injuries on the city centre’s streets at night.

Dr Jewell also said educating people about safe drinking levels and helping them combat peer pressure should start in hospitals and GP surgeries.

“One way to address this is through brief interventions,” he said.

“Hospital admission can be a sobering experience for people and evidence shows that people are more receptive to healthcare messages when they are delivered in a clinical setting.

“Such interventions deliver medium and long-term reductions in the kind of everyday drinking, which leads to either an incident such as a road traffic accident or longer-term damage such as liver disease, cancers and other health problems.

“For every eight people who receive brief advice, one will change their drinking to within low-risk levels.”

And Dr Jewell will say, in his annual report, which is published on Wednesday: “We need to shift the average alcohol consumption in the Welsh population as a whole downwards – it’s not just a problem of alcoholics.”

Andy Misell, policy officer at Alcohol Concern Cymru, said more must be done to tackle the problem of children drinking.

He said: “More than 500 children in Wales each year are admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions, and that’s just the tip of a very big iceberg.

“There is a role for us all in ensuring children can enjoy an alcohol-free childhood. Parents and other adults can do a lot to set a good example, by drinking responsibly themselves and being honest about alcohol’s benefits and drawbacks.”

He also said it was time to consider a minimum price for a unit of alcohol – studies have shown that 12 to 15-year-olds can buy 13 litres of cider with their average weekly pocket money.

And Mr Misell also called for a 9pm watershed for TV alcohol adverts.

“Advertisers currently have to ensure their adverts don’t appeal to children, but adverts for alcohol can be shown at any time during the day, and our research shows a large number of them are on television between 3pm and 6pm, when children are likely to be watching,” he added.

 

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