There are no safe levels of Alcohol consumption ....

[vernon]

How can that work then?

DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT?

 

[MarkF]

What about hitting the repeat offenders - 1 strike and you are tagged with a fee. I am sure its only a tiny fraction of the population that create this burden. At the moment there is no disincentive.

Fair enough but a large % are repeat "customers" they can't help it and no amount of fining will stop them. I don't know the correct figures, but I think they (boozers) make up a very small (but disproportionately annoying) % of A&E patients. It's fatso's and oldies sucking the life out of the NHS not boozers.

I know who I'd like to fine before a drunk, the bloke who stuck a porcelain figurine of Napoleon up his arse!

 

[Arrowfoot]

Fair enough but a large % are repeat "customers" they can't help it and no amount of fining will stop them. I don't know the correct figures, but I think they (boozers) make up a very small (but disproportionately annoying) % of A&E patients. It's fatso's and oldies sucking the life out of the NHS not boozers.

I know who I'd like to fine before a drunk, the bloke who stuck a porcelain figurine of Napoleon up his arse!

Thanks for the context and insight Mark. Lots of the respect for those who are in A&E, the heartbeat of the NHS.

 

[Dec66]

Meanwhile, the French Government's advice on alcohol consumption is... Erm...





Non-existent.

 

[MarkF]

In 2013-14 alcohol cost the NHS £3.5 billion - the figures were higher education in 2014-15 but I can't lay my hands on them at the minute. ..

The last figures for obesity were over £5 billion and rising. And of course the cost of alcohol treatment it offset by it's taxation.

 

[srw]

Out of defference to the new guidelines, the one on the left remains unopened. The fact it is a bit odd doesn't come in to it. Still the label was sufficient clue.

I think I might need a trip to M&S. Who's the brewer? Is the salted caramel added or is it caramelised malt with salt added?

 

[Julia9054]

Why does everything have to have bloody salted caramel in it these days?
Caramel = sweets
Salt goes on chips!

 

[Dec66]

It is brewed by the Meantime brewery, Greenwich. The ingredients suggest salt and caramel syrup are added and then further caramel for colour.

Or SABMiller, as they are known these days.

 

[srw]

It is brewed by the Meantime brewery, Greenwich. The ingredients suggest salt and caramel syrup are added and then further caramel for colour.

Porter is one of their few decent beers.

 

[PK99]

Why does everything have to have bloody salted caramel in it these days?
Caramel = sweets
Salt goes on chips!

the flavour triad: Sweet/Salt/Bitter

 

[srw]

Anyway, enough thread diversion.

It's a classic bit of risk management communication, as @User points out. The latest studies show a small, if measurable, increase in risk from a pretty low base risk level from any amount of drinking alcohol. It's the job of the person responsible for public health to point that out in a simple way.

It's up to us all individually to accept or reject that advice as we see fit.

 

[Dave Davenport]

If the government want to issue alcohol warnings they should warn people not to muck about with beer by adding stupid 'flavours' like toffee, banana, honey etc.

 

[JoshM]

I thought that this had already happened, with serial 999 callers being told they cannot have an ambulance.

People who call 999 but don't need ambulances are told they can't have one, some of those people will inevitably be regular callers. It's not like each person is allocated a set number of ambulance attendances and once you've used them, we refuse to send any more ambulances out to you.

As someone who spent their festive period tidying up after other people's 'festivities', it's hard for me to overstate the impact alcohol has on the level of demand placed on your blue light responders. EVERY call I took on my 12 hour night shift over New Year's Eve involved alcohol. Obviously not every shift is like that, but it rarely dips below 85% of calls for any given night shift year round. And it's not your 'skid row' style alcoholics that create that demand, nor is it just young people. I've lost count of the number of middle class, professional people in their 40-50's that we're asked to attend. Literally anyone can find themselves needing medical care because of their drinking. It's a huge public health problem.

I don't believe that fining people would have any impact on their drinking, as stated above no one starts drinking with the intention of needing medical attention by the end of the night, and most the time it's not the patient themselves making the call, meaning the patient themself is likely not able to prevent the call. It might make Granny Smith who has angina a bit reluctant to call for her chest pain because she's had her annual glass of brandy 20mins before the chest pain started though and that's something I personally wouldn't want to happen, so I'm personally against any kind of fine for use.

 

[Fab Foodie]

You forgot one, umami

Don't we have Sour any more or has it been relegated?

 

[srw]

Don't we have Sour any more or has it been relegated?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_receptor
Apparently not.

Anyway, I'm about to investigate some alcohol with a sweet/strong/sour flavour combo.