Dangers of binge drinking outlined

A leading specialist on alcohol abuse said current marketing techniques attempted to "normalise drinking" and called for "the political will to unbalance the ambivalence" of attitudes towards drinking in Ireland.

Rolande Anderson, director of the Irish College of General Practitioners' Alcohol Project, spoke at the launch of a teaching workbook at the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) yesterday.

Links exist between alcohol and depression, suicide, hypertension, high blood pressure and skin disorders, he said. "The reality of binge drinking is incontinence, impotence, sexual assault, financial problems, violence and absenteeism."

The workbook will accompany a 10-minute film. Both works, produced by design students and staff at WIT, are to be distributed to secondary schools and third-level colleges nationwide.

Under the Influence grew from a poster design competition at WIT. It charts the experiences of six students during a night of heavy drink consumption.