60 HealtH Matters
may be beginning will be offered brief
advice and those whose levels of drinking
are approaching dependency will be offered
onward referral. In the pilot of this project
almost half of all the people attending
were drinking to levels that merited a brief
intervention and advice.
In terms of providing practical advice and
support to people who are drinking, and to
their families, the Hse and the Department
of Health and Children have had a number
of information campaigns and education
programmes over the years. One of the
initiatives has been to flag levels of weekly
alcohol intake above which health effects
may begin to appear. Historically the weekly
alcohol limit for males has been 21 units
and for females 14 units. these calculations
were based on United Kingdom units,
which are considerably weaker than Irish
units. We now talk about standard drinks
in terms of alcohol education and the
upper weekly limit for men is 17 standard
drinks and for women 11 standard drinks.
a standard drink is a half pint of beer, a
small glass of wine or a measure of spirits.
epidemiological evidence suggests that
over half of Irish drinkers exceed weekly
High per capita alcohol consumption recommended levels. this suggests two
gives rise to certain types of chronic possibilities. Firstly, the limits are set at an
alcohol-related illnesses such as cirrhosis,
“for those of us who unrealistically low level or secondly, that we
various types of cancers including breast
work in the health
really have a problem, which as a country
cancer, epilepsy and elevated blood we are struggling to come to terms with.
pressure. Binge drinking, or to give it
services the effects of
In relation to daily levels of alcohol intake
its new term ‘heavy episodic drinking’, certain conditions are much more prevalent
tends to be associated with the more
both high per capita
the higher the daily alcohol consumption.
public aspects of drinking harms - street
alcohol consumption
Cirrhosis is probably the best known and
violence, accidents, homicide, sudden rates of cirrhosis are 13 times higher in
death. as in other cultures, heavy drinking
and high levels of people who drink more than six standard
is more prevalent in males than females
binge drinking are all
drinks a day compared to those who drink
and in younger ages. For those of us who less than two. there are a range of cancers
work in the health services the effects of
too common”
including cancers of the mouth and throat
both high per capita alcohol consumption where the risk of acquiring them increases
and high levels of binge drinking are all the more regularly one uses alcohol. there
too common. For anybody who works related to people, who have suffered the is some evidence of a benefit from very low
in an emergency department either as a impact of problematic alcohol use. alcohol intake in relation to cardio vascular
porter, clerical staff, clinical staff or indeed there have been a number of studies disease but this is primarily in people aged
security staff, the impact of heavy episodic over the past ten years on the impact of over 65.
drinking will be apparent on a nightly basis. alcohol in our emergency departments and We will continue in the Hse to highlight
Persons working in mental health services, a new initiative is due to start in selected this issue. less harmful patterns of alcohol
in gastroenterology and liver units and hospitals in the state where all attendees use will lead to improved human health, less
intensive care units will see the results of at emergency departments will be asked misery, less pressure on the health services
consistently high per capita consumption. about their alcohol consumption. those and a more pleasant working environment
Most Irish adults know people, or are who are at a level where hazardous drinking for many Hse employees.
health matters is 4.indd 60 27/11/2009 20:45:37
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