Teenage girl ‘ladettes’ just as likely to be alcohol binge drinkers

Teenage girl ‘ladettes’ just as likely to be alcohol binge drinkers

Teenage girls are now just as likely to embark on binge drinking as boys, new figures have disclosed.
Government statistics show that girls aged under 15 are consuming an average 11.3 units of alcohol a week, the equivalent of six medium glasses of wine or five pints of beer.
This compares with 11.9 units for an average male teenage drinker who is aged 11 to 15.
Young females are also turning their back on drinks such as wine and lager and instead choosing to consume dangerous levels of spirits, the NHS figures disclosed.
It is the first time girls have been closer than five per cent behind their male counterparts.
Experts said the figures painted a disturbing trend of the rise of the “ladette” girls who are drinking dangerous levels of alcohol.

Glamorous advertising campaigns and cheap prices of alcohol in supermarkets are being blamed for the rise.
They also warned that the problem was a “ticking timebomb”, with the health problems associated with binge drinking set to plague the health system for years to come.
“Underage drinking is an issue that we should all be concerned about,” said Don Shenker, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, the charity.
“Young girls are saturated by images, messages and role models, including the way adults drink, which creates a casual acceptance of drunkenness.
“But this culture is taking a toll on young people’s health, with high levels of hospital admissions and all too frequent trips to A&E.”
He added to the Daily Mail: “The next generation of binge drinkers are being created through access to cheap booze in supermarkets and irresponsible marketing by multi-million-pound retailers and producers.”
The figures, taken from 2009, the latest year available, disclosed that almost 2,800 boys were admitted to hospital with “alcohol-specific conditions” such as liver damage or ethanol poisoning. For girls it was 33 per cent higher a 3,661.
Many other accidents involving alcohol such as falls caused by drinking too much, are not included in the figures, prompting fears that the problem is far greater.
The NHS figures on drinking rates come from a survey of almost 8,000 girls and boys aged 11 to 15 in 264 schools in 2009.
Almost half the girls questioned claimed to have had drunk alcohol, compared to 52 per cent quoted of boys. If this trend continues, girls will overtake boys next year.
Almost three in four girls questioned said they had drunk spirits in the past week, which was a dramatic rise of 38 per cent in 1990.
Between 2000 and 2007, the drink of choice for girls was alcopops but the popularity has since to just over two in three women.
The figures come just days after the NHS Information Centre disclosed that the number of young people having to be treated in hospital for serious liver disease has risen by more than 50 per cent in the last decade.
Earlier this month the government unveiled minimum prices for alcohol in a bid to curb binge-drinking and booze-related violence.
Retailers will be banned from selling alcohol below the cost of duty plus sales tax, meaning a can of lager must cost at least 38 pence and a one-litre bottle of vodka at least £10.71.
The Coalition Government pledged to combat cheap drink promotions and end the selling of alcohol at below cost.
Under the plans unveiled by the Home Office retailers will be banned from selling drinks for less than the value of duty and VAT owed on them.
It will, for the first time, effectively set an individual minimum value for each product under which the price cannot drop.
Health campaigners condemned the measures as insufficient.