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One in five men is a "heavy drinker", consuming more than four pints of beer every day of the week, says a study.
The research raises fresh concerns about Tony Blair's "open all hours" licensing policy and shows that as many as one in three men, while not defined as a "heavy drinker", still exceed Government levels on sensible drinking.
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Death rates of people in their 20s and 30s are predicted to rise steeply |
According to the report commissioned by the Department of Health, more people than ever — 69 per cent — know what constitutes sensible drinking but simply choose to ignore the advice.
The Government recommends men drink no more than three to four units a day and women drink two to three units. One unit is defined as half a pint of beer, lager or cider, a single measure of spirits, one glass of wine, or a small glass of port or sherry.
Yesterday's report is based on the General Household Survey, a continuous study that has been running since 1971 and is based each year on a sample of the general population, and the National Statistics Omnibus Survey of 2006 involving 2,474 adults.
Younger people were more likely than older people to exceed daily benchmarks.
Forty-two per cent of men aged 16-24 had exceeded four units on at least one day the previous week, compared with 16 per cent of men over 65.
Heavy drinking — defined as more than eight units a day for men or six units a day for women — was more common among men, at 19 per cent, than women, at eight per cent.
The figures come as deaths due to alcohol, particularly among those in middle age who took to binge drinking as young adults, have rocketed to nearly 8,400 a year.
These include deaths from diseases linked to alcohol such as liver disease, mental and behavioural disorders, degeneration of the nervous system, poisoning, and gastric and heart problems.
Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman said: "Ministers have done very little to tackle the growing cost of excessive drinking, both in terms of personal health and to the taxpayer."
Kieran Moriarty, professor of gastroenterology at the Royal Bolton hospital and an adviser on alcohol to the Department of Health, and Prof Gilmore, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians' alcohol committee, predicted it was "only a matter of time" before the first teenage death from liver damage caused by drinking was recorded.
They also predicted death rates of people in their 20s and 30s would rise steeply.
Yesterday's report showed that one in seven men had discussed their alcohol intake with a GP in the past year, up 11 per cent in 12 months.
Half of all alcohol drunk was beer, more than a quarter was wine or fortified wine and 17 per cent spirits. Alcopops accounted for four per cent.
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