Speech by Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Public Health, delivered 5 November 2008 to the 3rd National Alcohol Conference

Thank you. I’d like to add a health perspective to what has already been said.

There is an argument – a very strong argument - that problem drinking is, in a sense, becoming ‘the new smoking’ in terms of the challenge that it presents to public health.

The scale of the problem is certainly comparable. Twenty-six per cent – about 10 million adults in England – currently drink more than the Government guidelines. By contrast, 22 per cent smoke – and that has fallen considerably in recent years.

But it’s the numbers at the top end of the drinking spectrum that are most troubling. More than two and a half million adults are drinking alcohol at a “higher risk”. That is 1.6 million men regularly drinking more than 8 units a day or 50 units a week, and a million women regularly drinking more than 6 units a day or 35 units a week.

We are already seeing health problems now as a consequence. But they serve notice of a much bigger danger to come: a wave of preventable death, disease and injury.
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