Watch what you drink warning

WARRINGTON’S director of public health, Dr Rita Robertson, has urged local people to keep careful tabs on how much they drink.
Her warning comes after new national figures revealed that 325 people in Warrington have died from alcohol-related causes in the last nine years – almost 40 per cent of them during the last three years alone.
Dr Robertson (pictured) said it was extremely important that people keep themselves aware of just how much alcohol they are drinking – and called on the government to introduce a minimum price per alcohol unit, to target the heavy drinking problem which is responsible for most of the deaths.
People did not realise that “you don’t have to be an alcoholic to drink yourself to death”
Dr Robertson said: “Many people simply do not realise the risk of drinking too much alcohol. The majority of people who die from alcohol are not alcoholics, but they have drunk too much alcohol over a long period of time.
“The recommended limits are lower than many people think – 2-3 units for a woman and 3-4 units a day for men. It’s easy to forget that a pint of premium lager can easily be three units, and a large glass of wine can be more than three units. So it is all too easy to put your health at serious risk.”
Dr Robertson said that experts are concerned about the connection between alcohol becoming cheaper and more easily available and people drinking more.
Cllr Pat Wright, Warrington Borough Council’s lead member for health and wellbeing, said: “Alcohol used to be a luxury, but it is now very available and often sold at pocket money prices. Research has proved that the cheaper alcohol is, the more people drink.
“We are calling on the government to help save lives by introducing a minimum unit price of 50p per unit. This would put up the price of very strong cheap alcohol, which is mostly consumed by heavy problem drinkers, without penalising moderate drinkers who would only pay about 5p more per week.”