The Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE 2010) have been released by the North West Public Health Observatory, based in the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University. This year, key indicators in healthcare, criminal justice, benefits claimants, drinking patterns and life lost due to alcohol have been used in combination to identify and map those areas experiencing different overall levels of alcohol-related harms.
Professor Mark Bellis, Director of the North West Public Health Observatory commented:
“The English death toll from alcohol now exceeds fifteen and a half thousand people every year. It is time to recognise that we are not a population of responsible drinkers with just a handful of irresponsible individuals ruining it for others. Over one in four drinkers exceed weekly limits according to national surveys and alcohol sales figures suggest the number is much higher. At weekends, by the early morning hours our city centres do not have just a few drunk individuals – actually most people are drunk yet continue to be able to buy alcohol despite such sales being illegal.
“We need to see the real cost of alcohol reflected in the price it is sold at and the warnings about the dangers that alcohol represents not relegated to a tiny corner in alcohol adverts, but written large enough for people to recognise the seriousness of the risks.
The full report can be viewed at http://www.lape.org.uk