Alcohol death warning issued

Thursday, 26 June 2003 12:00 AM

A new report from Alcohol Concern has found that twice as many people are dying from drinking too much today compared to the 1970's.

The figures revealed at its Legal But Lethal conference show that almost 6,000 people died due to the directly attributable affects of alcohol in 2001.

This compares to only 1,498 deaths directly related to drugs.

In 1979 only 2,500 died from alcohol consumption, standing at 6/ 100,000 population for men and 4/100,000 for women. The figures are now 13/100,000 and 7/100,000 for men and women respectively. The numbers are based on certificates where alcohol is actually mentioned as a cause of death; however

Alcohol Concern is anxious to say that this only touches on the damage caused by alcohol.

Chief Executive of the charity, Eric Appleby explained that other research, which covers relevant types of cancers, strokes, heart disease and dementia, as well as accidents, suicides and assaults, estimates the figure to be over 30,000 deaths a year.

'One of the questions we'll be posing at our conference is - will the proposed national alcohol strategy be enough, and in time, to stop the alcohol time bomb exploding. At present, resources are very much being focused on tackling illicit drugs - despite the fact that a legal drug, alcohol, ruins the lives of many more people,' he said.

There is particular concern about the amount of alcohol that younger women are consuming on a regular basis.

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