Up to 100,000 to die from drinking
Almost 100,000 people could die in next decade from drinking too much, charity warns
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 19, Oct 2009 09:37
By Sarah Garrod
Almost 100,000 people could die as a direct result of their drinking over the next decade, a charity has warned today.
Alcohol Concern has revealed the figures along with researchers from the Alcohol & Health Research Unit at the University of the West of England, who found 90,800 people could die from an avoidable deaths if drinking trends continue.
The charity suggested a minimum price per unit should be enforced on alcohol sales to curb the trend.
The research is the first of its kind in the UK and maps the whole population's level of drinking with the number of deaths from alcohol-related causes. The author of the work said the UK was experiencing an alcohol "epidemic".
Worryingly, the findings showed there has been a trebling of deaths from 3,054 in 1984 to 8,999 in 2008, as consumption of alcohol has continued to increase. The figures do not include those deaths "indirectly" caused by drinking such as those from drink-driving or cancers which have been caused in part by drinking.
Professor Martin Plant, lead author of the work said: "It is strongly recommended that reducing mortality should be the top priority for alcohol control policy.
"This could be done by introducing a minimum unit price of 50p which would cut alcohol-related hospital admissions, crimes and absence days from work."
Just last week Addaction, the UK's largest drug treatment agency, said 1.3 million children under the age of 16 are living in homes where one of the parents has serious drug or drinking problems. The organisation called the figures "heart-wrenching".
"Whilst there has been a small reduction in consumption and mortality over the last two years, the overall trend is a rise in consumption and a trebling of deaths since 1984.
"This rise runs in parallel with the growing affordability of alcohol. Without policies which more effectively target the cheap price of alcohol we will not get to grips with what has become one of the country's biggest public health problems," Alcohol Concern chief executive Don Shenker said today.