Deaths spark calls for alcohol advertising ban

Alcohol advertising should be totally banned to curb the nation's growing drink problem, a leading doctor said yesterday.

Prof Ian Gilmore, the head of the Royal College of Physicians, said the measure – which would include all sports advertising – was necessary to deal with a "rising tide of deaths" from alcohol.

His call follows figures published this week that showed alcohol-related deaths have doubled in the past 15 years.

Prof Gilmore said action was needed to protect children, who were influenced by sporting heroes wearing shirts emblazoned with drink company logos.

They also wore miniature versions of the shirts themselves which sent out the wrong message, he said.

The college had always supported the Government's alcohol harm-reduction strategy, but it was clear that its approaches to the problem were not enough, he said.

"The evidence around price and availability of alcohol is that it is very cheap in the UK and has never been more available," he added.

"We really are quite liberal in comparison with many countries.

"I think it would be hard to move to a total advertising ban straight away, but we can work towards it.

"Most urgently we should look at introducing a watershed, with a move towards a complete ban. Many people do enjoy a drink, but we cannot ignore the rising tide of deaths from cirrhosis (of the liver)."

Prof Gilmore said it did not make sense to have a watershed for promoting unhealthy foods to children but then allow alcohol advertising during the day.

He said he had recently watched a football match on satellite television which had shown four alcohol advertisements over the course of a lunchtime. His nine-year-old nephew also has a Liverpool shirt with the Carlsberg logo, he said.

And he said supermarkets should be far more responsible and not promote such cheap drink, and called for higher taxes on alcohol.

"I'm not teetotal and we are not calling for prohibition," he added. "But we want to see some evidence-based strategies to see a reduction in the alcohol-related harm which we see in our hospitals."

Prof Gilmore said alcohol misuse showed up health inequalities. "It's often people at the bottom of the pile that drink to numb their difficulties in life," he added.

The figures published this week showing the number of people drinking themselves to death almost doubling reveal the extent of the alcohol cri sis. In 2004 there were 8,221 alcohol-related deaths, such as cirrhosis of the liver, in Britain, almost double the total of 4,144 in 1991. Of those, 5,465 were men and 2,915 women.

Organisations such as Alcohol Concern put the number of alcohol-related deaths at more than 22,000 a year, nearly three times the official figure.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We are concerned about the number of alcohol-related deaths and are committed to tackling this problem.

"We are currently introducing measures set out in the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England which will help reduce alcohol-related deaths.

"A high-profile responsible drinking campaign, Know Your Limits, aimed at 18 to 24-year-olds was recently launched by the Department of Health and the Home Office."

He added: "Identifying problems as early as possible will help avoid the serious damage that alcohol dependency has on the health of the individual."

Telegraph