Design Practice: October 2010

Statistics

'In comparison to figures released 10 years ago, the number of units consumed has doubled for both boys and girls. In 1990 the average consumption for 25 percent of boys in the week previous to the survey was 5.7 units and for girls 4.7 units. In 2000 this rose to 11.7 units for boys and 9.1 for girls' - BUPA

'The Social Trends statistics for the year 2000 also indicated that children start drinking at an increasingly young age. Almost 20 percent of 13-year-old boys and girls drink alcohol at least once a week, at 14 years this rises to 34 percent and 31 percent respectively, and at 15 around half reported drinking at least once a week' - BUPA

Every day, 15 children under the age of 16 are admitted to A&E in hospitals because of alcohol abuse. Some have drunk more than a bottle of vodka in one session. - Goodtknow.co.uk

11-13 year-olds who drink regularly have more than 10 units of alcohol a week, compared to six in 2001. - Goodtknow.co.uk

NHS statistics show that one-fifth of secondary school pupils admit to regular drinking. - Goodtknow.co.uk

Findings from the Offending Crime and justice survey show that about three million children between the age of ten and seventeen admit to drinking in the past year, the study said there was a strong association between drinking and crime, 26% of those who drank one to three times a month had committed a violent offence - woyano.com underaged drinking

Gary Stannet, director of Positive Futures, discusses the findings of his group's survey of 11-19 year olds which reveals 42% started drinking when they were 13 or younger.

Girls are 1.3 times more likely than boys to need to be admitted due to alcohol. Between 2004 and 2009 23,347 females under 18 received treatment compared with 18,159 males in that age group. - the guardian

Facts

'Both the Portman Group and Alcohol Concern stressed the need for a national strategy to educate children in schools before they start drinking and strict law enforcement to prosecute premises that sell alcohol to under 18's' - BUPA

Children as young as 12 are now being diagnosed as alcoholics. - Goodtknow.co.uk

Scientists warn that teenagers who drink heavily are risking permanent brain damage, in particular to their brain function. - Goodtknow.co.uk

Alcohol has been shown to cause significant memory loss in youngsters and could extend to adulthood. - Goodtknow.co.uk

An alcoholic unit is half a pint of ordinary strength beer or a glass of wine (125ml) or a pub measure of fortified wine or spirit (25ml) - Goodtknow.co.uk

Alcohol increases your risk for many deadly diseases, such as cancer. Drinking too much alcohol too quickly can lead to alcohol poisoning, which can kill you. - http://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/teens/facts/myths.aspx

Drinking is a dumb way to loosen up. It can make you act silly, say things you shouldn't say, and do things you wouldn't normally do (like get into fights). - http://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/teens/facts/myths.aspx

On average, it takes 2 to 3 hours for a single drink to leave the body. Nothing can speed up the process, including drinking coffee, taking a cold shower, or "walking it off." - http://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/teens/facts/myths.aspx

A young person's brain and body are still growing. Drinking alcohol can cause learning problems or lead to adult alcoholism. People who begin drinking by age 15 are five times more likely to abuse or become dependent on alcohol than those who begin drinking after age 20. - http://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/teens/facts/myths.aspx

Alcohol Concern's report paints a grim picture. Underage drinkers across the UK consume the equivalent of 6.9m pints of beer or 1.7m bottle of wine every week, and 630,000 11- to 17-year-olds drink at least twice a week - the guardian

Ambulance services in England and Wales have been called out an estimated 16,387 times in the past year to deal with drunken under-18s. Ambulance crews in London, the West Midlands and the north-east answered 4,527 callouts between them, of which 2,365 related to girls, 2,008 to boys and 154 were unrecorded. - The Guardian

Helping children and young people with alcohol problems costs the NHS almost £19m a year, Alcohol Concern estimates.In 2007-08, 64,750 ended up in casualty. - The Guardian

Eight off-licences, identified as places where adults try to buy alcohol for teenagers, were targeted by officers on 24 July.

Underage drinking, fuelled by the "ludicrously cheap price of alcohol" in supermarkets, is costing the National Health Service £19m a year.

Children as young as eleven are drinking the equivalent of nearly two bottles of wine a week, according to a new survey of England’s regional drinking habits. - Christian.org.uk

The survey, released by the NHS Information Centre, measured the average alcohol consumption figures for children based on those who had drunk alcohol in the last week.

The survey, conducted between 2006 and 2008, revealed that the North East was the worst performing region in England, with one in four 11 to 15-year-olds drinking. - Christian.org.uk

Today’s figures are very worrying. We’re seeing a slight decline in the number of children who drink, but those who do drink are drinking much more. - Don Schenker chief executive of alcohol conern

Opinions

'i think its up to them if they drink or not. im 15 myself and drink, you may think im young and immature but you only live once, me or any of my friends dont drink because we think its cool we do it because we want to have a good time and we enjoy ourselves. people commenting on this saying its unacceptable are clearly people who didnt have much of a teenage life and dont have the memories of what it was like to throw a house party and get completely wasted. from nearly every adult i know iv been told to have fun in my teenage years as they will be the most fun and memorable times i will have. so thats what i am doing, i am living my life in the moment, who cares about the future? deal with the future when it comes no point in wasting your life worrying about something that might not even happen to you. im all up for living my life to the full:D' - goodtoknow.co.uk

'the reason most teenagers drink is because there is nothing else to do at the weekends etc. i dont see what the big deal about drinking is as long as your careful and you watch what you drink' - goodtoknow.co.uk

'Unfortunately, drnking alcohol is deemed to be a "cool" and "grown-up" thing to do, therefore making kids want to try in even more! I was one of them, but never did, dont get me wrong i would if i could have, no ID was a prolem though! However now i'm 18, looking at things properly, i do think that it is unacceptable for under 18s to be drinking, they arent responsible for themselves and could get themselves and others into big trouble. Something NEEDS to be done' - goodtknow.co.uk

'Initially I found the headline 'Shocking' it is the word 'Children' that stood out for me. When you read on, they are actually referring to Adolesents, I'm not saying thats ok but you tend to think of Children as being under the age of Ten. I have a really big problem with some Parents and most of them are my Friends because they seem to think its ok to let thier under age Teenagers Drink but if they found out they were Smoking, that would be totally unacceptable, why? they are both ILEGAL! You have to start with the Parents as it is the thier responsibilty to discourage them from Drinking at an early age' - Leona Cassell (mi mam)

Drinking alone isn't what causes problems. Like everything else it's a lack of moderation - Yahoo answers

I think it's shocking that so many young people are drinking alcohol.. i don't think girls drink more i just think they can't control themselves as well as guys when they drink too much! It's something that needs to change but which young person listens when someone says don't drink? - Baljeet Samra

"As long as alcohol remains as heavily promoted as it currently is, young drinkers will continue to consume far more than they might otherwise, leading to inevitable health harms and wasting ambulance and police time," said the charity's chief executive.

'We mustn't forget that under-18s are still children, with developing bodies and low tolerance levels, so drinking to the point of needing hospital treatment is extremely dangerous' - Chris Sorek/Drinkaware

I have read the article on under age drinking and I do agree with the statement from the Dept of Health. Everyone, parents (especially), the police, social services and the education autorities all need to work together to educate young people on the dangers and long term damaging effects of drinking. Young children copy their peers and other adults, so it is up to everyone to show a good example, and also explain the benefits of not binge drinking. - Joan Fox (Mi Gran)

I also feel that alcohol is too easily obtained and is also too cheap, which enables anyone to "over" indulge. It amazes me that young people as young as 13 years of age can get their hands on alcohol. We have all seen young kids falling around drunk, so the police must have seen them or even been told about them by members of the the public, but they do nothing for what ever reason, who knows.
Maybe the authorities are blinkered as to what goes on in our towns and cities. - Joan Fox (Mi Gran)