Alcohol-related deaths in the UK reached a record high last year and it is being said that this is due to an increase in alcohol consumption during the Corona epidemic.
According to the British Bureau of Statistics, the number of people who died from alcohol in the country in the year 2021 was nine thousand 641. In comparison, 7,565 deaths were recorded in 2019, a 27% increase in alcohol-related deaths.
The Office for National Statistics says it believes people who were already heavy drinkers may have increased their drinking during Covid.
Drink Aware, a charity that promotes awareness of the harms of alcohol, said the rise in alcohol-related deaths was “catastrophic” and “unacceptable”.
It should be noted that in the figures given by the Bureau of Statistics for the year 2021, only those deaths were directly caused by alcohol. Most of these deaths are due to kidney failure due to heavy drinking.
These numbers are one-third of the deaths that are related to alcohol, which means that the other two-thirds of deaths are also caused by alcohol, but they are considered to be an indirect cause of alcohol consumption.
According to the combined figures for all regions of the United Kingdom, i.e. Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, Scotland had the highest proportion of alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 in 2021, while England had the lowest.
According to James Tucker, an expert at the Bureau of Statistics, “the research shows that people who were already heavy drinkers before the corona epidemic increased their alcohol consumption during the epidemic.”
In the years before the epidemic, men were twice as likely to die from alcoholism as women. In the seven years to 2019, the rate of alcohol-related deaths in the UK did not rise above a certain level, but the rate increased in 2020 and 2021.
Commenting on the latest figures, DrinkAware’s Karen Tyrrell says that ‘these figures are very disturbing, behind every number there is actually a whole family’s tragedy hidden.’
“It cannot be accepted that in the deprived areas of one of the richest countries in the world (Britain), the proportion of men who die from alcohol consumption is four times that of the richest areas.”
Karen Tyrrell added that reports were ignored that heavy drinkers had increased it during Covid, and that this was due to the government’s support for people to cut down on alcohol. was not being provided.
Now their organization has stressed the need for a comprehensive UK-wide strategy to reduce the impact of alcohol consumption on society and public services.
Experts believe that one way to reduce alcohol consumption could be to increase taxes on it to discourage the production of cheap and highly addictive alcohol.
“Despite the opposition from the business community, we cannot afford to let this strategy of alcoholism go to waste,” says Dr. Catherine Severy, head of the Institute of Alcohol Studies Soften that helps save lives.
The government, on the other hand, says it is committed to changing the current complex and outdated system of taxation on alcohol.