From the BBC – (Full story here),

Drink-related hospital admissions in England have reached record levels, NHS statistics show.

Hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease more than doubled in a decade, reaching 35,400 in 2004/5.

Admissions for alcoholic poisoning increased to 21,700 from 13,600 over the same 10-year period.

The report by the Information Centre for health and social care also highlights England's binge and underage drinking problem.

Problem drinking

Nearly one in four secondary school children aged 11-15 reported that they had drunk alcohol in the past week when surveyed in 2005.

The average amount of alcohol consumed by this age group doubled between 1990 and 2000 and currently remains at 10.4 units (or about 10 small glasses of wine or five pints of beer) per week.

Young adults are the most likely to binge drink - a third of men and a quarter of women aged 16-24 said they had drunk more than double the recommended number of units on one day of the previous week, typically Saturday, when surveyed in 2004.

In comparison, older adults, aged 45-64, are more likely to drink smaller amounts regularly, on five or more days of the week.

Although high, the UK's consumption levels ranked middle against other European Union countries in 2001. Luxembourg topped the table, with its residents drinking an average 17.54 litres per capita per year compared to the UK's 10.39 litres.

But unlike other countries in Europe, the UK's alcohol consumption is still rising.

Well there’s a shocker…

"By presenting this data we hope that health professionals will be better equipped to put their work in context and to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol misuse,"