Did you toast to the Royal wedding at the weekend? Perhaps you were part of the many Royal wedding parties over the country and indeed world. Perhaps the wedding was just an excuse to get together with your friends and crack open the bubbly. Why not? It’s that typical daytime wedding drinking that many of you may say ‘I’m spreading it across the day so I’ll be fine tomorrow’ but did you clock how many units you were getting through or was your glass just being constantly filled up so you lost track. For our Toolbox Talks Tuesday CES Hire have been considering the impact of excessive drinking and talking about just how many units are in that pint.
Alcohol and our high-risk construction industry are not a good mix as alcohol depresses parts of the brain that allow you to be focused. If you turn up to work with last night’s ”quiet” drink with the boys or girls (which inevitably turns into anything but quiet) still in your system not only are you increasing the risk of an accident but also risking loosing your job. One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour. This means that within an hour there should be, in theory, little or no alcohol left in your blood, although this will vary from person to person. So how many units are in those after work and weekend drinks that we crave after a busy day/week? A large glass of wine (250ml) contains 3 units meaning if you regularly consume the whole bottle, you’re looking at 9 units! A pint of lager/beer/cider can vary between 2-3 units depending on strength and a single 25ml shot of spirits is 1 unit though do be aware that for some pubs a single measure is 35ml and 1.4units (that extra half unit over a couple of double gin and tonics will soon add up). Men and women are not advised to drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week (that’s about 6 pints). So what are the effects if you are partial to those pub sessions where one pint turns into six?
Hangovers! I’m sure we’ve all had them, maybe not to the same extent as the film but still, they leave you feeling awful and vowing never to do that again. A hangover is really just a sign that your body needs some time out to fix itself. Alongside that hangover you may experience vomiting, diarrhoea, insomnia, mood swings and ever wondered where those moobs came from? Alcohol increases estrogen and progesterone levels which causes increased breast tissue in men! Long term, excessive drinking can cause a whole range of cancers, strokes and liver cirrhosis. Rather appropriately, following on from our mental health awareness week last week, alcohol has powerful affects on our brain. Far too often people use alcohol to give themselves confidence thinking it will help them loose their inhibitions or perhaps mask feelings of sadness and depression; quite ironic really since alcohol is a depressant itself and will actually have a more damaging affect on your mental health. Alcohol distorts your thinking and that can lead to dangerous decisions such as walking home alone or even getting behind the wheel of a car.
Who remembers this advert? (click here). A short and sharp reminder of the impact drink driving can have. 2 pints will generally put a man over the limit. The statistics say it all. An average of 940 people were killed in drink driving related accidents in Great Britain each year. An average of 3,681 people were seriously injured in drink driving related accidents in Great Britain each year.
Approximately 85,000 people are convicted of drink driving related offences each and every year in England and Wales alone. The majority of those convicted are male (approximately 85%). Remember it takes at least an hour to remove each unit of alcohol from the body and that’s assuming you’re not topping yourself up with more. If you finished that bottle of wine (9 units) at midnight last night, you will most definitely not be driving to work the next day.
A little celebration never hurt anyone so let’s raise a glass to the new Duke and Duchess but make mine a small.
If you’d like to read more on this subject, the NHS website has further information and links to support. Please click here.