Promoting safe, sensible and social drinking

In spring 2008, Surrey Primary Care Trust (PCT) launched a major public engagement campaign across the county - in partnership with Surrey County Council, Surrey Police and all 11 boroughs.

Entitled The Big Drink Debate Opens in a new window, the campaign was developed to find out more about people's drinking habits and how they feel about excessive drinking, principally via a web-based questionnaire and a series of community consultation events in each area. The Safer Surrey Heath Partnership supported the campaign in Surrey Heath during July, August and September with displays and by handing out in The Mall cloth bags containing the survey and promotional pens and leaflets.

The PCT aims to use the survey results to inform a Surrey-wide alcohol strategy, looking at how to promote safe, sensible and social drinking, as well as considering better treatment services, how to enforce local licensing laws, safety issues and so on.

Big Drink Debate preliminary results

The PCT is currently analysing the full results of the Big Drink Debate, which closed on September 30. However, initial findings from more than 4,500 responses to the online survey reveal that:

• 82% did not know the government daily drinking guidelines
• 13% drink at hazardous levels - more men than women
• 18 to 24-year-olds were the most likely to be drinking at hazardous levels
• 46% had witnessed alcohol related anti-social behaviour in the last month
• 72% of people felt that health professionals should routinely give advice on safe and sensible drinking
• 64% of people felt that businesses that sell alcohol to people who are already drunk should be prosecuted
• Respondents were split 46% vs 45% on whether or not opening hours restrictions on pubs and clubs should be reintroduced

The Surrey alcohol strategy will be published in April 2009, and the full report from the Big Drink Debate will be available in December at www.surreybigdrinkdebate.nhs.uk Opens in a new window.

Drinking habits in Surrey Heath

Alcohol is an issue across the country, and Surrey Heath is no exception. In fact, Surrey Heath was among the top 10 boroughs in the country for hazardous drinking*. This may not lead to violent crime, but the long-term health implications for this are enormous. Alcohol-related harm costs the NHS up to £1.7 billion a year, and between 780,000 and 1.3m children are affected by parental alcohol problems.

Alcohol - facts and fiction

Myth: White wine is a good choice for a person who wants a light drink with less alcohol.
Fact: A glass of red or white wine, a bottle of beer or a shot of whiskey all contain equivalent amounts of alcohol and are the same to a breathalyser.

Myth: A 'beer belly' is caused by drinking beer.
Fact: A 'beer belly' is caused by eating too much food. No beer or other alcoholic beverage is necessary.

Did you know?: The word 'toast', meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.

Myth: Drinking coffee will help a drunk person sober up.
Fact: Only time can sober up a person. Alcohol leaves the body of virtually everyone at a constant rate of about 0.015 per cent of blood alcohol content (BAC) per hour. Therefore, a person with a BACof 0.015 would be completely sober in an hour, while a person with a BAC of 10 times that (0.15) would need 10 hours to become completely sober. This is true regardless of sex, age, weight etc.

Myth: When you go to the toilet, most of the alcohol you drink passes out of the body.
Fact: Less than two per cent of the alcohol is lost through going to the toilet. Breathing, perspiration and urine account for up to 10 per cent of the metabolising of alcohol. The remainder is dealt with mainly by the liver.

Myth: Alcohol reduces stress.
Fact: Alcohol is a depressant drug. It may relax you in the short term, but can produce more stress and worries in the long-term.

* Hazardous drinking is defined as drinking above recognised sensible levels - two to three units per day for women and three to four units per day for men - but not yet experiencing harm.