Boozy Britain 'on road to Hogarth's Gin Lane'

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Boozy Britain 'on road to Hogarth's Gin Lane'

By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent

(Filed: 22/03/2006)

 

 

The around-the-clock availability of cheap alcohol

could

 

cause a health crisis reminiscent of the horrors of

 

William Hogarth's Gin Lane, a leading liver expert

will

 

warn today.

 

 

William Hogarth's Gin Lane

 

Prof Ian Gilmore will say Government policies

including

 

last year's change in licensing laws are unlikely to

stem

 

the tide of increasing consumption and related health

 

problems.

 

He will summon up Hogarth's 18th century image of

 

debauchery, neglect and violence to describe his fears

in

 

a speech to the annual conference of the British

Society

 

of Gastroenterology in Birmingham.

 

New licensing laws that came into force in November

 

allowed 70,000 pubs, clubs and supermarkets to stay

open

 

beyond 11pm, including 1,100 businesses that have

taken up

 

their new right to open 24 hours a day.

 

Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1960s and

 

research published earlier this year showed deaths

from

 

liver cirrhosis have increased markedly in Britain

while

 

falling in most other European countries since the

1950s.

 

Prof Gilmore, a liver specialist at the Royal

Liverpool

 

University Hospital, said yesterday that allowing

shops to

 

sell alcohol " next to bread and milk " around the clock

 

 

would fuel the upward consumption trend, and allowing

pubs

 

to stay open later would do nothing to stem it.

 

" I remain concerned that the likelihood is that

 

consumption will continue to increase year on year. In

 

 

modern times alcohol has never been cheaper or more

 

available. We are in a time of cheap alcohol

reminiscent

 

of Hogarth's Gin Lane.

 

" While pubs and clubs being open an extra hour or two

does

 

not overly concern me, it's the widespread,

around-the-

 

clock availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets,

 

corner shops and petrol stations that is likely to

fuel

 

consumption.

 

" In many civilised countries alcohol is available

either

 

from separate shops, or at least from separate

sections

 

within supermarkets. Here it is next to the bread and

 

milk. This easy availability encourages drinking at

home,

 

and this is what is driving the damage to health, just

as

 

much as binge-drinking in pubs and bars.

 

" Government alcohol policy focuses on crime and

disorder

 

and binge drinkers and is in danger of overlooking

those

 

drinking regularly and excessively at home. "

 

According to research published in the Lancet in

January,

 

mortality from liver cirrhosis among men grew by two

 

thirds in England and Wales and doubled in Scotland

during

 

the 1990s. In women, deaths increased by almost half

over

 

the same period.

 

Apart from Britain, only Finland, Ireland and the

 

Netherlands saw an increase in deaths from liver

disease

 

from 1991 to 2001 in Europe.

 

Between 1957-1961 and 1997-2001, the number of deaths

from

 

liver cirrhosis in England and Wales jumped from 3.4

to

 

14.1 per 100,000 in men and from 2.2 to 7.7 per

100,000

 

for women, according to World Health Organisation

data.

 

12 March 2006: Council provides al fresco drinking

 

for alcoholics

6 January 2006: Alcohol policy blamed as liver

 

deaths soar

24 November 2005: 70,000 pubs and clubs call an

 

end to time

 

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