UK shown to have the worst rate of child alcohol abuse

According to the World Health Organisation, the UK is the worst country in terms of alcohol abuse in children worldwide.

This comes from a study of 280,000 children asking about their use of alcohol, cigarettes and vapes.

Despite the current big issue of vaping constantly being debated — where 30% of 15-year-old girls and 17% of boys the same age had vaped in the last 30 days and 40% of girls had vaped or smoked before 15 — there are concerns that underage drinking is back on the rise.

The trend of children starting to drink earlier in life is said potentially to harm their development and may also lead to issues with alcohol later in life.

Experts aren’t exactly sure why the UK is so highly ranked compared to other countries on the list in both underage drinking and smoking but have pointed to pop culture, peer pressure and video games as possible causes.

To counteract smoking and vaping among minors the government are implementing a controversial bill.

This bill states that anyone born after January 1 2009 will never be allowed to buy tobacco products in an effort to create the “first smoke-free generation.”