Binge-drinking Brits spark public health crisis
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THIRTY-FIVE people will die every day from binge drinking-related illnesses over the next five years.
Doctors fear a looming public health crisis with our addiction to cheap booze costing the NHS a massive £16.7billion.
And they are warning that 63,000 people could die from liver problems by 2022.
The number of deaths linked to drinking has already soared by 400% over the past 40 years.
Experts have accused the Government “letting people die” by “standing by” and refusing to increase the price of booze.
Katharine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said yesterday: “The evidence is clear – raise the price of the cheapest alcohol to save lives and save money.”
Robust
Professor Roger Williams added: “Liver disease is a public health crisis that has been steadily unfolding before our eyes for a number of years.”
The professor, who treated former footballer George Best for alcoholism before his death in 2005, added: “The Government will have to take robust action.”
A spokesman from the Department of Health admitted last night: “Liver disease can be incredibly damaging.
“We are committed to tackling the underlying causes.
“That’s why we moved to tax higher-strength beer and cider more than the equivalent lower-strength product.
“We also have a worldleading childhood obesity plan, new guidance on lowrisk drinking and a comprehensive free screening programme.”
The furore over the rate of drink-related deaths comes as the Scottish Government plans to introduce a minimum price for booze, calculated GAMBLING addicts made more than a million requests to bookies and online casinos to ban them last year.
The appeals were made under the betting industry’s “selfexclusion” scheme which means punters can ask to be barred for between six months and a year.
The total has soared since 2013, when just per unit of alcohol. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said that the new statistics offered “clear and compelling new evidence on the effectiveness of minimum unit pricing”.
He added: “Previous estimates suggested that in the first year after the introduction of minimum unit pricing in England, 192 lives would be saved.
“This latest research now suggests that after five years of minimum unit pricing in England, more than 1,000 lives would be saved.” 30,000 gamblers asked for help. Online gambling made up 95% of self-exclusions and Paddy Power had the highest total with 62,000. A spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “It is crucial betting operators are doing all they can to identify and help players at risk at the earliest opportunity.”