Balance What’s the Harm campaign advises parents around risks of alcohol
EVERY parent or carer wants to do the right thing for their children’s health. But what about providing them with alcohol?
With the summer on the horizon, parents and carers are being encouraged not to add alcohol to the mix to protect children.
Balance is launching the What’s the Harm? campaign aimed at giving parents information about the risks to both children and adults – and encouraging families to think twice about introducing alcohol to them.
Alcohol in childhood increases the risks of accidents, injuries, smoking, and drug taking, and can affect children’s mood and mental health. But 70% of the alcohol consumed by children comes from the family home.
Evidence is clear now that introducing children to alcohol – especially before 15 – can:
- Harm developing bodies and brains
- Worsen any feelings of low mood or depression
- Put their safety at risk
- Open the door to more regular teenage drinking and heavier drinking as adults
Alcohol is a group one carcinogen[i] and a direct cause of seven types of cancer, including bowel and breast cancer[ii]. Alcohol is driving nearly one million hospital admissions a year among adults from heart disease, mental health and behavioural disorders due to alcohol, cancer, and liver disease.
Chief Medical Officer Guidance is that no alcohol under 18 is the healthiest and safest option but if children do drink, it should not be before the age of 15. If children aged 15-17 do drink it should only be in a supervised environment and no more than once a week.
Although deaths from alcohol are at record levels, more young people and adults are now choosing not to drink for better physical and mental health.
Susan Taylor, Head of Alcohol Policy for Balance, said: “Every parent and carer wants the best for their child but alcohol can harm their physical health and mental health. The alcohol industry has long promoted alcohol as a normal part of a happy, successful life but in reality, too many adults and children are ending up in hospital, in A&E, or with real problems in their lives because of alcohol. Years of alcohol intake can catch up with people and damage their livers and organs – even as young people.
“The longer we can delay drinking alcohol in the lives of our children, the better. The younger they drink, the more likely they will develop a taste for it and encounter all the risks.”
Ailsa Rutter OBE Director of Fresh and Balance also added: “Alcohol is a group one carcinogen causing 7 types of cancer, can ruin lives and result in dependency. More and more young people are choosing not to drink – it is time that the alcohol industry stops peddling its products as fundamental to a happy and social life.
“At the moment vaping is occupying a lot of concern from schools, parents and teachers and this is understandable. But youth drinking is causing far more problems in their lives.”
The law is clear that buying alcohol under 18 or selling it to children under 18 is illegal.
Supplying children with alcohol undermines these important age-of-sale laws which are there to protect both children and local communities.
Information for parents and a FREE guide about talking to children about alcohol is available at Whatstheharm.co.uk
[i] https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health
[ii] https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/news/new-genetic-study-confirms-that-alcohol-is-a-direct-cause-of-cancer