Ireland tops EU underage drinking league

Health experts and ministers from 30 European countries will today be told that Ireland tops the EU table for underage drinking.

Health experts and ministers from 30 European countries will today be told that Ireland tops the EU table for underage drinking.

Minister for Health Micheál Martin will join colleagues from across the continent at the Stockholm meeting, which is expected to hit out at the marketing policies of the drinks industry.

Pubs, breweries and the marketing firms behind the image of alcohol can expect an international backlash from the meeting.

55,000 people under the age of 29 die in drink-related incidents across Europe each year, with alcohol being directly responsible for a third of young male deaths.

Minister Martin appears to be determined to crack down on the marketing practices of the Irish industry, and will return from the World Health Organisation meeting armed with statistics to aid his case.

He is already being lobbied by doctors to ban all advertising of alcohol, but suffered a major own-goal last week when a new anti-alcohol Internet site aimed as schoolgoers and teenagers was panned by health groups and even the Union of Students in Ireland for being "30 years out of date" and "patronising".

The WHO conference comes a day after Budweiser's "Whassup?" worldwide TV advertising campaign was confirmed to be the most successful of all time, with most people polled instantly recalling the brand connected.

The advert has spawned 38 fan sites on the Internet, two hit singles and even a reference in the box office smash Scary Movie.

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