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'Alcohol Effects' campaign outline
04.02.10
On Thursday 28th January, the Department of Health, in association with Cancer Research UK, the Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation, will be launching a powerful new campaign about the health harms associated with alcohol.
The campaign is aimed at the ten million adults in England who regularly drink more than the NHS advises without necessarily getting 'drunk', and may not be aware they are putting their health at risk.
As you may be aware, the campaign features new TV adverts that will convey compelling and potentially surprising information on the invisible harms of alcohol, revealing how drinking causes damage you cannot see. The campaigns will start to air from Monday 1st February.
There will be a press conference and stakeholder briefing session on Thursday morning, followed by a radio day that will cover regional radio stations. After the briefings, a launch release will be issued to the wider media.
The call to action is to drive people to the NHS Drinks Tracker, available to download to your computer desktop, mobile phone or iPhone from www.nhs.uk/alcohol, and the campaign website, www.nhs.uk/drinking, which will feature more interactive tools to arm people with the information they need to make healthier choices.
Key facts
A survey of over 2,000 adults launched to coincide with the campaign will show that the vast majority of those who regularly exceed the recommended limits of 2-3 units a day for women (about two small glasses of wine) or 3-4 units a day for men (about two pints of lager) don't think their drinking is putting their long-term health at risk.
The poll, which contains regional statistics, will also show a similarly large percentage of drinkers surveyed know that alcohol consumption is related to liver disease, but far fewer are aware it is also linked with various cancers, stroke and heart disease, along with numerous other serious conditions.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 20% of alcohol-related deaths are from cancer and 15% are from cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease and stroke, while 13% are from liver disease.