Health and alcohol
- Every seven hours, someone in Ireland dies from an alcohol-related illness
- Hospital discharges for alcohol-related liver disease increased by 147% between 1995 and 2004
- Alcohol-related deaths also increased during the same period, from 3.8 deaths per 100,000 to 7.1 deaths per 100,000
- Many cancers, including cancer of the mouth, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectum and female breast, have a causal relationship to alcohol consumption
- Cancer of the liver has had the highest rate of increase of all cancer types between 1994 and 2003, increasing by 10.7% for females and 7.4% for males, compared to an increase for all cancers of 1.1% for females and 1.1% for males
- There is a risk relationship between the amount a woman drinks, and the likelihood of her developing the most common type of breast cancer. Drinking one standard alcoholic drink a day is associated with a 9% increase in the risk of developing breast cancer, while drinking 3-6 standard drinks a day increases the risk by 41%
- High levels of alcohol use and heavy drinking among young women are reflected in the fact that one in four women discharged from hospital for alcohol-related conditions were aged under 30, compared to 17% of men under 30 discharged
- Between 1995 and 2004, there was an increase of 29% in the proportion of teenage girls aged under 18 discharged from hospital for alcohol-related conditions compared to an increase of 9% for males under 18
