Drink deaths double

23rd June 2003 ? Embargoed until 00.01am June 26th

Alcohol accounts for four times as many deaths as drugs
Twice as many people are dying as a direct result of boozing too much -compared with the end of the ?70s - according to figures released by Alcohol Concern today at its Legal But Lethal conference (see note below).

The figures reveal that the deaths of almost 6,000 people (3,800 men and 2170 women) were directly attributable to alcohol in 2001. This compares with 1498 deaths directly related to drugs.

The alcohol death toll has soared from 2,500 people in 1979 ? when men?s death rates were 6/ 100,000 population, while women?s death rates were 4/100,000.

By 2001, these had risen to 13/100,000 and 7/100,000 for men and women respectively.

Yet even this doubling of death rates is a vast underestimate of the true damage done by alcohol misuse, warns the charity. Alcohol Concern?s Chief Executive, Eric Appleby, explains: ?These figures are based on death certificates where alcohol is actually mentioned as a cause of death.

?Other research ? which covers relevant types of cancers, strokes, heart disease and dementia, as well as accidents, suicides and assaults - probably provides a more accurate picture. These studies estimate the figure to be over 30,000 deaths a year.?

He adds: ?One of the questions we?ll be posing at our conference is ? will the proposed national alcohol strategy be enough, and in time, to stop the alcohol time bomb exploding. At present, resources are very much being focused on tackling illicit drugs ? despite the fact that a legal drug, alcohol, ruins the lives of many more people.?

Other figures cited by Alcohol Concern include the Chief Medical Officer?s assessment that there was a four-fold increase in liver cirrhosis among 45-54 year-old men over the past 30 years ? and a three-fold rise among women of the same age. Among 35-44 year-olds the increase was around eight-fold for men and seven-fold for women.

Date: 23 June 2003