Britain Leads Europe in Binge Drinking

[GoldenRod]

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Sep 19, 1:19 pm ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are the worst binge drinkers in Europe and women are catching up with men in the heavy drinking stakes, the government said Friday, urging a "more civilized" late-night culture.
A report by Downing Street's strategy unit found that while Britons drink less than most of their continental neighbors, they drink more intensively.

"In the UK, binge drinking accounts for 40 percent of all drinking occasions by men and 22 percent by women," the unit said in a report designed to help form government policy on alcohol abuse.

That put Britain in the lead in the binge stakes, ahead of Sweden and Denmark, and way ahead of Germany, Italy and France, where binge drinking accounted for less than 15 percent of all consumption.

The strategy unit acknowledged binge drinking was difficult to define but said that for the purposes of its report it meant drinking more than twice the government's daily guidelines.

Those guidelines are three to four units of alcohol a day for men and two to three units for women. A unit is defined as half a pint of medium strength beer, a small glass of wine or a measure of spirits.

The report also warned that while most Europeans are drinking less than they used to, Britons are drinking more.

"If present trends continue, the UK would rise to near the top of the consumption league within the next 10 years," it said, adding that British children under 16 are drinking twice as much as they did 10 years ago.

Women are also drinking more.

"The number of women drinking above recommended guidelines has risen by over half in the last 15 years," it said.

One in four women exceeds the government's guidelines, compared with just one in 10 in 1988.

The British alcoholic drinks industry is worth $48 billion a year, seven billion of which finds its way to the Treasury.

The BBC said the study showed that Britain loses 17 million working days per year to hangovers and drink-related illness, faces 1.2 million incidents of alcohol-related violence a year, that up to 1.3 million of its children are affected by parents with drinking problems and that alcohol-related problems are responsible for 22,000 premature deaths each year.
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It's nice to be #1....