Drinking will kill 210,000 in next 20 years: Experts
February 20th, 2012 - 9:37 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Feb 20 (IANS) Alcohol will cause 210,000 deaths during the next 20 years through illness, violence and accidents, British doctors have warned.
Two of Britain’s foremost alcohol specialists, Ian Gilmore and Nick Sheron, are calling on the government to act quickly to avert this “shameful, preventable loss of life” by outlawing cheap alcohol, Daily Mail reported Monday.
In a BBC Panorama programme Monday, liver specialist Sheron says that liver disease is now the only major cause of death continuing to rise.
They have calculated that in the next two decades there will be 70,000 avoidable deaths from liver disease and another 140,000 from drink-related strokes, heart attacks, cancer, violence, suicides and accidents.
Ministers had hoped that introducing 24-hour drinking laws in 2005 would stop revellers binge-drinking in the run-up to closing time.
But police say that round-the-clock opening, in combination with supermarkets selling some alcohol cheaper than water, has left town centres resembling the Wild West.
Health service figures show there were 1.2 million hospital admissions related to alcohol last year, which has doubled in just eight years.
- Alcohol killing 20-year-olds in Britain - Aug 01, 2011
- Drink, obesity behind steep rise in liver deaths - Aug 30, 2010
- Britain's problem drinkers are middle-aged professionals - Mar 09, 2012
- Alcohol kills 9,000 Britons every year - Jan 27, 2012
- Drinking at home is silent killer for Britons - Nov 02, 2011
- Binge drinking linked to coronary heart disease - Dec 03, 2010
- Girls lead the binge-drinking culture in New Zealand - Jan 09, 2011
- Alcohol more harmful for women - May 07, 2012
- Red wine's benefits for heart overestimated? - Sep 20, 2011
- Binge drinking impairs memory of youngsters - May 17, 2011
- Peg or two lowers risk of liver disease - Apr 23, 2012
- Britain's women soldiers told to drink responsibly - Jan 13, 2011
- Binge drinking leads to brain damage - Jun 28, 2011
- Meet UK's 11-year-old drunk generation - Oct 31, 2010
- Daily drinking poses biggest threat to liver - Mar 21, 2009
Tags: accidents, bbc panorama, binge drinking, british doctors, cause of death, cheap alcohol, closing time, daily mail, health service, heart attacks, hospital admissions, liver disease, liver specialist, london feb, panorama programme, preventable loss, revellers, sheron, strokes, suicides