RSPH has welcomed Public Health England and Drinkaware’s new campaign Drink Free Days. The campaign aims to help the public, and especially middle-aged regular drinkers, to cut down on the amount of alcohol they consume by encouraging more ‘drink free’ days – days without any alcohol consumption.

The Drink Free Days campaign also includes a tracking app – a clear and easy way for people to track how many days they have drunk alcohol – and a webpage to assess alcohol intake relative to the rest of the population. 

The initiative is much-needed: a recent YouGov poll found that one in five UK adults are drinking more than the Chief Medical Officer’s low-risk drinking guidelines, which advise it is safest not to drink more than fourteen alcohol units per week.  

Cutting down alcohol intake to within the recommended limit is important for health – a recent study found that life would be shortened by an average of 1.3 years for women and 1.6 years for men for those aged 40 who drank above the UK weekly guidelines compared to those who stuck to the recommended limit. 

Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive, RSPH, said: “Millions of adults in the UK are drinking in ways that are harmful for their health, often without even realising it, with excessive alcohol consumption leading to a range of health problems, including liver disease, heart disease, and a number of cancers.  

“The new Drink Free Days campaign is a welcome and easily understandable way of starting to take control of alcohol intake. Setting a target of a certain number of drink-free days is a simple and achievable way of cutting down and improving health and wellbeing.”