Community | June 16, 2009 | 1 comment

Girls now as bad as boys for underage drinking

Image
slagface
Eleven- to 15-year-olds in London drink an equivalent of 180,000 bottles of lager a week, a survey reports today.

The study, carried out for the London assembly, also reveals that young Bangladeshis and Pakistanis – whose Islamic faith forbids alcohol – are now drinking far more.

The increase is most significant among young girls; their drinking habits have caught up with boys. Hospital admissions for young women, however, are almost double those for men of the same age because of their lower tolerance of alcohol.

Heavy drinking among youngsters is worse in the capital's outer boroughs; Kingston and Sutton have the worse figures for alcohol-related hospital admissions among under 18s. London ambulance service reported a 27% increase between 2004 and 2008 in alcohol-related calls for those aged under 21.

Chris Sorek, chief executive of charity Drinkaware, said: "Many young people see drinking alcohol as a rite of passage and an ordinary part of growing up, but rather than being 'cool', drinking too much can put young Londoners at risk of violence, health harms and unwanted pregnancies. The reality is that many young people don't actually drink – but those that do can increasingly get themselves into tricky situations."
  1. groups:
    Community,   Culture,   Health,   UK News,   2 more
  2. tags:
    News Culture Health London 5 more
  3.     
    |

1 comment // Girls now as bad as boys for underage drinking

more from Community:

top videos