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Hidden danger of not knowing your limits
Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor19 May 2008
Three-quarters of Londoners are ignorant about how much they drink.
Official "safe" alcohol limits are between two and three units a day for women and up to four units for men.
But government figures published today show half of Londoners do not know a glass of high strength wine equals three units.
Three out of five are also unaware that a double gin and tonic contains two units.
The evidence of widespread ignorance over drinking limits comes as ministers launch a £10 million alcohol awareness drive.
The Know Your Limits campaign is aimed at tackling the country's binge- drinking epidemic by educating people about alcohol consumption.
Women are also being targeted to alert them about the link between excessive drinking and breast cancer.
Super-strength wines, larger glass sizes and cheap drink prices have all been blamed for a rise in alcoholrelated health problems.
Women in their thirties are among those most at risk from serious disorders such as liver disease.
The number dying from drinkrelated illnesses has almost doubled in 15 years because their bodies are less able to cope with long-term alcohol abuse.
Experts today called for social drinkers to be screened for liver damage. Liver disease is known as a "silent" killer because patients often do not display acute symptoms until they are at an advanced stage.
Rajiv Jalan, a consultant at University College London and the British Liver Trust, said the Government must invest in life-saving screening programmes similar to those for heart disease.
Dr Jalan, head of the liver failure group at UCL, said: "[Liver disease] is growing at such a rate that we'll be left with a heavy burden. If you look round an office then one in five will be drinking excessively and 10 per cent of them will have undetected problems. Awareness programmes are important but they are too late for some people."
The Royal College of Physicians warned today for the first time of the dangers of "gateway" drinking.
Research to be published later this year shows that those most at risk are not just young alcohol abusers but people in their thirties and forties who have progressed from weekend bingeing to social drinking on week nights. Nick Sheron, from the college's alcohol committee, said: "There's all this focus on bingedrinking but the people I see are people who've gone through this stage and are instead drinking half a bottle of wine on Monday nights."
He said he was treating young mothers with liver disease for the first time and the ratio of women with the disease was now on a par with men.
Dr Sheron said safe drinking limits should be standardised across Europe and that bars and restaurants should display notices for customers which clearly shared the unit content of different strengths of wine.
