Health body wants minimum price for alcohol

An ''ultimate gin & tonic'' is mixed at The Bazaar bar at the SLS hotel in Beverly Hills, California December 10, 2008.

LONDON (Reuters) - The government should set a minimum price for alcohol and consider an advertising ban to reduce alcohol abuse, which kills thousands of Britons a year, the country's health cost watchdog said on Wednesday.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises on the cost effectiveness of health measures, said setting a minimum price per unit would help "offset some of the serious social, economic and physical health problems that arise as a consequence of drinking too much."

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said he had yet to be convinced on minimum pricing, but the government was determined to stop supermarkets selling alcohol below cost price and to introduce tougher licensing laws.

"It is not clear that the research examines specifically the regressive effect (of minimum pricing) on low income families, or proves conclusively that it is the best way to impact price in order to impact demand," he said in a statement.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected a call from Britain's chief medical officer in March last year to set a minimum price of 50 pence per unit of alcohol -- a level which would nearly double the price of some cheap beers and wines.

Health ministers from around the world agreed last week to try to curb binge drinking and excessive alcohol intake through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing rules.

Experts say Britain's taxpayer-funded National Health Service, which is facing a 15-billion-pound funding shortfall after 2011, spends about 2.7 billion pounds a year treating the effects of alcohol.

"This is money that could be spent elsewhere to treat conditions that are not so easily preventable," said Mike Kelly, NICE's director of public health.

About a quarter of all adults in Britain drink "hazardous or harmful amounts" of alcohol.

Besides contributing to deaths and injuries in car crashes and other accidents, alcohol is associated with liver disease, cancers, alcohol poisoning, foetal alcohol syndrome and heart disease, which is itself the No. 1 killer of men and women in industrialised countries.

(Editing by Andrew Dobbie)