Slough Borough Council

Alcohol

Safe drinking units

The government advises that men should drink no more than three to four units a day and women no more than two to three units per day.

A large glass of wine is approximately 3 units, a pint of ordinary strength lager is 2.3 units and one bottle of an alcopop can be 1.4 units on its own.

Pregnant women are now advised not to drink alcohol at all.

You can calculate the units for your favourite drink from the Drink Aware website.

Drink driving limits

The legal limit in the UK is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

However, any amount of alcohol can affect your ability to drive safely. Effects can include:

• slower reactions
• increased stopping distances
• poorer judgement of speed and distance
• reduced field of vision
• over confidence and risk taking

There is no fail safe guide to how much you can drink and still drive safely as it depends on your weight, sex, age, metabolism, stress levels, amount and type of alcohol.

Drink spiking

Drink spiking involves someone, other than the drink's owner, putting another substance - such as rohypnol or GHB - into the drink causing the victim to lose control physically. It can also cause short-term memory loss.

To help prevent drink spikers:

• don't drink anything you didn't open yourself or see being opened
• don't swap or share drinks
• if someone offers you a drink, go to the bar and watch it being served
• don't drink anything that has an unusual taste
• don't leave drinks unattended when going to the toilet or dance floor.

For more information on any drink related issue call DRINKLINE on 0800 917 8282.