Know your limits

A new 'Units' campaign which aims to tell drinkers how many units are in their drinks and help them stick to their limits has been lauched by Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo.

The Know Your Limits campaign '“ the biggest alcohol awareness campaign to date '“ kicks with a series of adverts on TV, radio, billboards and in press, depicting the number of units in individual drinks.

The Units campaign has an overall budget of 6 million for 2008/09.

It will be followed by a 4 million binge-drinking campaign from the Home Office next month.

New YouGov poll results out today show that drinkers in the South East region don't know exactly how much they are drinking.

More than four out of five people (87%) claim to know what a unit of alcohol is, yet nearly three quarters (74%) underestimate how many units are in a typical large glass of wine.

More than half (55%) of the people questioned in the South East region thought a large glass of wine (ABV 12%) would contain two units, when it actually contains three. Around a third (33%) did not know that an average pint of beer (ABV 4%) contains two units, while over half (54%) did not know a double gin and tonic also contains two units.

Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo, said:

"Glass sizes have grown larger and the strength of many wines and beers has increased, so it's no wonder some of us have lost track of our alcohol consumption.

"This campaign is all about helping people understand how many units are in their favourite drinks, and helping them to keep an eye on their intake for the good of their long-term health.

"Excessive alcohol consumption is proven to play a significant role in the development of numerous diseases, including several cancers, heart disease and stroke. That's why this campaign is so important to the nation's public health."

The YouGov survey showed that while most women in the South East (64%) knew that their recommended daily guidelines are 2-3 units, fewer than half (49%) of the men surveyed knew their equivalent guidelines are 3-4 units a day.

Units awareness also appears to get worse with age: 32 per cent of drinkers aged 18-24 surveyed across England correctly said that a large glass of 12 per cent ABV wine contains three units, compared to just 18 per cent of drinkers over 55. And 69 per cent of drinkers aged 18-24 correctly stated that a pint of 4 per cent ABV beer contains two units, compared to 57 per cent of drinkers over 55.

The poll revealed that over half of adult drinkers in the South East (56%) drink alcohol at least two to three times a week, and 13 per cent drink every day.

In the South East 3,500 deaths each year are attributable to alcohol and excessive drinking leads to 17,500 hospital admissions. Alcohol abuse accounts for nearly 10% of the disease burden in England, nearly half the incidents of domestic violence and 70% of A and E attendances.

Young people's consumption of alcohol is perhaps most worrying with nearly half of young men and 40% of young women drinking above the daily safe limits.

The NHS is working locally to address the need for better preventive care and treatment.

To help people add up the units in their drinks, the Government has launched a new online calculator that can be downloaded to your desktop. For more information, visit www.nhs.uk/units.