Working out exactly what is a standard drink is not always easy. However, one standard drink contains 10g of pure alcohol (equivalent to 12.5ml of pure alcohol), regardless of glass size or type of alcohol (such as beer, wine or spirits). For example, a 250ml bottle of high-strength pre-mix spirits (7 to 10% alcohol by volume) is equivalent to 1.4 to 1.9 standard drinks. A 285ml glass of full strength beer (4.8% alcohol by volume) is equivalent to 1.1 standard drinks. Therefore, these two drinks represent almost three in all, based on their alcohol content.
This is why you must measure standard drinks by the amount of alcohol they contain, and not by the number of glasses that you consume. Check the label of any bottle, can, or cask of alcohol for the number of standard drinks it contains.
No amount of alcohol can be said to be safe. Factors such as gender, age, mental health, drug use, and existing medical conditions can change how alcohol affects people. To reduce your risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks in any one day. If you drink more than this, your risk will increase.
Alcohol use increases the risk of cancers, particularly cancers of the mouth, throat, voice box, oesophagus (food pipe), bowel, liver, and breast. Even drinking small amounts of alcohol increases your cancer risk. Alcohol consumption may also lead to weight gain, which in turn can contribute to other types of cancers. The Cancer Council recommends people limit their alcohol consumption to reduce cancer risk.
Pregnant women and women who are planning a pregnancy should not drink alcohol, because it increases the risk of harm to the unborn baby. If you’re breastfeeding, the safest option is not to drink alcohol at all.
To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, anyone under the age of 18 years should not drink alcohol. This is because a younger person’s body doesn’t cope with alcohol as well as an older person’s body – their brain, heart, and liver aren’t yet fully developed, and so they are less able to process it.
In some countries, it is an offence to supply alcohol to a person aged under 18 in a private home, unless the young person’s parent or guardian has given permission and the alcohol is supplied in a responsible manner. However, the laws that cover alcohol and children vary all over the world and change from time to time.
Alcohol consumption is responsible for numerous hospitalisations and deaths in teenagers aged 14 to 17 years all over Europe on a daily basis. Some useful tips for dealing with teenagers and drinking include:
In Malta the limit for most drivers is 0.5g/l
Therefore, when you bear in mind the above limit, any person considering driving home after a meal has to stay clear of anything above half a glass of wine.
However, for the following vehicles, the limit is slashed to 0.2g/l:
So, if half a shot is considered to be roughly 0.5g/l, the limit for the above motorists is basically a single sip of alcohol.
The M. Demajo Group support their staff with the realisation that workplace wellbeing initiatives are more than just a ‘nice to have’ – they are vital for the success of the company. Not only do they make our employees feel supported, but they also have a large impact on the overall health and productiveness of our work environment.
There has also been an increase in the understanding of how important alcohol education is as a key component of any wellbeing scheme.
We recognise that alcohol is often part of workplace culture, either when doing business with customers and clients or as part of socialising between colleagues. But to create a healthy and inclusive work culture, it is important to remember that alcohol is not for everyone. Some people choose not to drink at all, or only very occasionally.
The potential benefits of being an alcohol-aware workplace are:
