“Your port is safe, for the time being.”

One of the last bastions of civilisation.

Boyo:

I am low risk according to that. I don’t really drink much.

http://www.knowyourlimits.gov.uk/units/drinkcheck/index.php

to really get the blood pressure up? I would be interested to hear your result…

Your port is safe, for the time being.

I guess then, this campaign is aimed at the one step down from total self annihilation market…erm, who aren’t going to listen cos its way too ingrained a habit.

But wait, what’s this? Alcohol has never been cheaper than it has today (same lecture)..and ooh, we have an alcohol crisis in the UK. Hmm, coincidence?

Gah.

“It’s a good article.”

Thanks.

“The difficulty I suppose is that health issues are just too complex to be dumbed down into these over-simplified, one-size-fits-all formulae and there is a real risk that the thing becomes counterproductive because it looks so OTT.”

That won’t stop the state trying it.

Boyo:

“However, the point of the ads is clearly not to say “lager has 3 Units” and “bitter has 2 Units”, it is to get the drinker thinking about what is in their drink.”

When I watched the advertisement (before the red mist descended), I took from it that they were saying that a glass of lager was three units and so on. At no time during the advertisement was there an indication that these were only very rough estimates, which they are.

“As for the £10 million… sounds big doesn’t it, but not compared to the £200-plus million the alcohol industry spends on marketing every year, or the £1.2 billion alcohol-related harm costs the NHS.”

£10 million is a lot, whatever you compare it to. There is absolutely no evidence that if people knew the precise units that they were drinking that they would cut down. People might say that, but then they would, as it is always easier to blame something else (marketing, glass sizes, alcoholic content) then take responsibility for their own actions.

“Have you checked wine volume recently? The stuff I drink tends to be about 13.5 these days – New World and Old – so I don’t think 10 Units is outlandish.”

I have seen a few 10% wines recently. My point is that unless you actually look at the alcohol strength, having a figure in your head is pretty useless, as the units can vary a lot.

“And really, I haven’t seen 9.5 since my parents got out the Blue Nun in 1974…”

Heh.

Err not quite.

People reporting two drinks or fewer a day fared better in a 10-year California study of death rates than nondrinkers, but heavy drinkers had a doubled mortality rate, three researchers said today.

The findings, based on a study of 8,060 people, reinforced other research indicating moderate alcohol consumption may have a protective effect against heart disease.

Death Rates for Nondrinkers Below Drinkers’, Study Finds

http://www.units.nhs.uk/unitCalculator.html

and found a 13 per cent bottle of wine = 9.8 units

Have you checked wine volume recently? The stuff I drink tends to be about 13.5 these days – New World and Old – so I don’t think 10 Units is outlandish. And really, I haven’t seen 9.5 since my parents got out the Blue Nun in 1974…

As for the £10 million… sounds big doesn’t it, but not compared to the £200-plus million the alcohol industry spends on marketing every year, or the £1.2 billion alcohol-related harm costs the NHS.

Your “guesswork” example refers of course to the fact that experts took a guestimate as to the relative risk associated with alcohol, but actually this is because THERE IS NO SAFE LIMIT. There is a clear upwards curve from no alcohol and one’s probability of contracting a host of unpleasant illnesses increases accordingly, which is why the experts now talk of lower, increasing and higher risk drinking.

The truth is thousands of people go to an early grave because of their ignorance about alcohol, our consumption of which has almost doubled over the past decade along with hospital admissions.

The difficulty I suppose is that health issues are just too complex to be dumbed down into these over-simplified, one-size-fits-all formulae and there is a real risk that the thing becomes counterproductive because it looks so OTT. Throw away use of terms like ‘binge drinker’ don’t help much.

To my mind the better route is to make it easier (but NOT compulsory) to have good quality individualised NHS healthchecks with follow-ups but the cost is going to be a long way in excess of £10m!

If you can do these calculations correctly you obviously haven’t drunk too much.