Science News

Alcohol Problems and the Nhs

Diseases caused by an unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking, alcohol, drug abuse and obesity are pushing the NHS close to collapse. Smoking related illness costs the NHS about 1.5 billion pounds per year, obesity 1.78 billion, and alcohol-related diseases about 3 billion. Worse still, the number of problem-drinkers seems to be increasing. Since 1984 we have seen a 33% increase in the number of people with an alcohol-related problem, and now over 33,000 people die each year and 28,000 are admitted to hospital, just because of alcohol.

17th Mar 2002