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Sunday 27 January 2013 - 10:05

Female death toll from alcohol abuse soars faster than male’s

Story Code : 235146
Female death toll from alcohol abuse soars faster than male’s
According to figures published by the British media, the number of deaths caused by drinking among women in high-flying roles such as chief executives, doctors and lawyers, has increased by 23 percent. 
 
The figures also show a 17 percent rise - 247 to 290 - in the number of women at lower management level, who lost their lives to liver disease and other conditions caused by alcohol use. 
 
The number of deaths among men, in both categories, was higher but rose less sharply - the toll for 2011 was 15 percent higher than in 2001, figures showed. 
 
Harmful drinking among middle-class and middle-aged women is also fuelling rising rates of liver disease, cancer and high blood pressure, which can cause strokes and heart attacks. 
 
“A harmful drinker is drinking more than 35 units a week. That’s the equivalent of half a bottle of wine a night”, said Tory MP Tracey Crouch, chairman of the All-party Group on Alcohol Misuse. 
 
“A lot of people drink far more units than they realise, especially women. I think there are a whole combination of reasons - it’s become more socially acceptable, the availability and low cost of wine and the pressures on professional women when you are working and also have a house to run”, she said. 
 
“We need to look at education and raising awareness about this at the workplace”, Crouch added. 
 
Among women, deaths caused by alcohol poisoning, liver disease, hepatitis or alcohol-related heart and pancreas failure reached 1,402 in 2011, the most recent figures available, compared to 1,177 a decade earlier - a 20 per cent rise. 
 
In men, deaths from alcohol rose from 2,850 to 3,488 over a decade, a 22 per cent increase, of which the highest toll was among those in manual jobs. 
 
Professor Ian Gilmore, chair of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance, said rates of almost all serious diseases in the young and middle-aged have fallen as we live longer, but liver disease is rising ‘dramatically’. 
 
“These figures are just the tip of the iceberg, as they are the cases where alcohol is specifically mentioned on the death certificate”, he added. 
 
“When you look at diseases where alcohol is a major factor, such as oesophageal and throat cancer, or strokes, the true toll is much larger. 
When I became a liver consultant 30 years ago, to see a woman dying with alcohol-related liver disease was really rare”, Gilmore said. 
 
“Today it’s not common, but every liver specialist will have seen women in their late 20s or early 30s dying of alcoholic liver disease”, he concluded. 
 
Professor Gilmore backs the government’s planned introduction of a minimum alcohol price per unit. 
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