One in five at "significant risk" over booze intake

One in five adults across England are drinking enough to put their health at "significant risk", a report published today reveals.

The Local Alcohol Profiles for England show that in some areas of the country more than a quarter of adults are drinking at "hazardous" levels (see factfile below).

People living in relatively affluent areas, such as Harrogate, Guildford and Woking, are more likely to be drinking at these levels, the report says.

Those drinking even more, referred to as "harmful" drinkers (see factfile below), tend to live in more deprived areas, such as Liverpool, Manchester and Hull.

The profiles, published by the North West Public Health Observatory, also find that these levels of drinking are causing a surge in alcohol-related ill-health and pressures on health services.

Professor Mark Bellis, Director of the North West Public Health Observatory said. "While much attention has been paid to binge drinking less discussion has focused on the damages associated with routinely consuming too much alcohol.

"Across England around one in five adults are drinking enough to put their health at significant risk and one in twenty enough to make disease related to alcohol consumption practically inevitable.

"We need to tackle binge-drinking and all the short term social and health consequences associated with such behaviour.

"However in order to stop further increases in alcohol-related deaths and admission to hospital, we must also reverse the tolerance that most communities have built up by simply consuming too much alcohol on a weekly basis."