ALTHOUGH the festive season of excessive drinking is over for another year, the harmful effects of excess alcohol and binge drinking are a permanent part of some people's lives, Worcestershire's advisory Service on alcohol has warned.

Between 1,200 and 1,500 people in Worcestershire every year refer themselves to the county's alcohol advice experts - and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Following the high profile admission by former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy last week that he has had an alcohol problem, and the recent death through drinking of ex-footballer George Best, the public's relationship with alcohol is under media scrutiny.

Barney Colgan, manager of the Advisory Service on alcohol for Worcestershire, said: "We estimate that drinking is harming 1.4 per cent of the people in the county."

And 90 per cent of those are holding down regular jobs and living an apparently conventional lifestyle.

"People are drinking double the amount they were 20 years ago and the binge drinking culture is increasing. It is too early to say if the changes to the licensing laws are having an impact."

According to a survey published in the Lancet last week, deaths from liver cirrhosis, which is commonly caused by excessive alcohol consumption, are rising more quickly in the UK than in any other country in Western Europe.

In fact the number of alcohol-related deaths in Worcestershire dropped from 67 in 2001 to 64 in 2004 but the number of alcohol-related emergency admissions increased by 52 per cent between 2002 and 2005.

Apart from harming the liver, alcohol can damage people's health and well-being in other ways - contributing to strokes, cancer, depression and accidents. Mr Colgan said: "The incidence of liver damage is down to people's individual susceptibility as well as the amount that they drink and the number of years that they have been drinking.

"I have known of people who have died from cirrhosis of the liver at 23 years of age. Our livers cope differently. There are good guidelines on drinking."

The Government recommendations are three to four units per day for men and two to three units a day for women.

"We are aware that some people drink their weekly units in one go. If they do that, they should have several dry days during the week."

The Alcohol Advisory Service is the leading provider of community alcohol services in Worcestershire and has 10 workers in the alcohol advisory service offices and at GPs' practices across the county. "Our service consists of a number of professionals, including psychiatric nurses and counsellors," added Mr Colgan.

"People who cannot stop drinking do need professional advice and help. We help to detox people living in the community and that can involve treating them with drugs and monitoring them.

"People need to realise that they need a lot of support if they have an alcohol problem," said Mr Colgan.

He added that while alcohol- related problems are high profile at the moment, the service only attracts one tenth of the funding ploughed into dealing with the effects of drug misuse. "We could be doing more."

He advises anyone who thinks their drinking is harming them to refer themselves directly to the Alcohol Advisory Service on 01905 27417 or to their GP.

Tim Davies, director of public health for South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, said: "There are two types of drink problem areas. There is binge drinking and there are the chronic effects of drinking more than the Government's recommended levels for a long period.

"Alcohol is cheap, legal and readily available. In real terms it is probably cheaper than it has ever been. For some bizarre reason we have a culture that says drinking until you cannot stand up us a clever thing to do.

"We need to get to a situation, particularly, where binge drinking in young people is as socially unacceptable and drink-driving is now."

ALCOHOL'S TOLL ON OUR SOCIETY

Alcohol misuse in the UK is associated with:

22,000 deaths each year as a result of liver disease, cancer, stroke, accidental injury or suicide.

A third of domestic violence - 360,000 incidents.

Half of all violent crime.

150,000 hospital admissions annually.

70 per cent of late night weekend A&E attendances.

Costs the NHS £1.7bn each year.

Loss of £2.4bn annually to the economy through

premature deaths.