Warning from health experts after Hallam's Freshers Week findings
After we revealed just how much alcohol some Sheffield students are drinking - health professionals are warning they’re putting themselves at serious risk.
After we revealed just how much alcohol some Sheffield students are drinking - health professionals are warning they’re putting themselves at serious risk.
Earlier this week, we sent our reporter to spend a night in Sheffield city centre as thousands of new students arrived for Freshers Week.
These are some of the responses we got when we asked how much they’d drunk or were planning to drink that night:
“Half a bottle of whiskey. I did a full bottle a few weeks ago. Half a bottle is quite standard.”
“About 10 jagerbombs and a few pints. The jagers were only £1.50, it was cheap.”
“About three quarters of a bottle of wine. And then I hit the vodka blackcurrant lemonade. Oh and jagerbombs.”
“You can buy triples for £2.50. We’re from Leeds where it’s like £6 for a triple!”
Now, as the week comes to an end, Public Health England says its ‘startled’ by our findings.
Corinne Harvey leads on Health and Wellbeing for Yorkshire and Humber and says there are multiple risks:
“It could lead to alcohol poisoning, so in the short term it’s going to have harms and could lead to risk-taking behaviour. But there’s also the medium to longer term risks that you’ll be doing to yourself including an increased risk of cancer and heart disease.
“I think it’s part of the culture. There’s a number of things that could be done which would help, including not encouraging young people to drink at those sort of levels with by-one-get-one-free and reduced price of drinking that a lot of bars are doing at this time of year.
“Access and pricing are key elements which do need to be addressed and we’re working with the government to try and demonstrate the impact of that. People are going to consume more when the price is lower. And accessibility – how easy it is for people to consume that level of alcohol because they’re able to buy it from lots of different places in a small area.”
We played our findings to Davey Silver from Sheffield Hallam Students' Union - he insists they DO encourage responsible drinking:
“Students are coming to a new city, they’ve got the best three or four years of their lives ahead of them… you should be having a good time during Freshers, but student safety has got to be at the forefront of it. So I think having a good time, but having limits.
“Certain bars and clubs have their way of getting bars into the buildings but it’s not what we promote. So you won’t see too many crazy offers here at the Union. We DO promote the need to watch your limits and look after your friends.
“We’re really good at promoting these other opportunities that are available in Freshers week. Alcohol doesn’t have to be involved at all with the sober socials and the events where drink isn’t a factor. It’s all about meeting new people and coming together for a shared hobby.”