Friday 30 March 2012

Sunderland has highest rates of alcohol deaths

North-East town suffers most deaths linked directly to alcohol

Sunderland suffers the most deaths linked directly to alcohol in England and Wales, new figures have revealed, with genteel Bournemouth not far behind.

The North-East city was top of the risk list, with alcohol killing 36 people in 2010, a report from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Bournemouth was the only place from the South to feature in the ten worst places, exposing a sharp national divide between North and South.

The figures were split into Parliamentary constituencies. Bootle in Liverpool was second in the list with 35 deaths, followed by St Helens South in Merseyside with 32 deaths.
Devizes, Wiltshire, had the least amount of deaths with two.

Julie Elliot, MP for Sunderland Central, said: “These are extremely frightening statistics and are evident of the economic disadvantages that Sunderland and the North-East are facing.
"Tackling alcohol abuse and related deaths must become a key public health priority.”

Colin Shevills, Director of Balance, and Alcohol Awareness Group, said: "There is no question that alcohol misuse is having a devastating impact across not just the North East, but the whole of England.

"This is because alcohol is far too cheap, far too widely available at too many hours of the day and far too heavily promoted. The Government has an ideal opportunity to turn back the tide of alcohol misuse by presenting a strong alcohol strategy later this year.”
The figures were based on deaths attributable to alcohol poisoning, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and excluded diseases linked to drink such as liver and mouth cancer.

The original article can be found at the link below:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/revealed--sunderland-has-highest-rates-of-alcohol-deaths.html

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