How should the alcohol content of drinks be measured? – asks M-V
The unit of alcohol is defined as 10 ml of pure alcohol and is unique to the UK (and possibly Eire). Other EU countries have developed their own â??units of alcoholâ??, and Wikipedia lists seven or eight different units for different countries.
Should there be a standard â??unit of alcoholâ?? (defined as one centilitre which is the UK definition) or should each country continue to define its own unit of alcohol. If so, who should take the lead in making this definition â?? the EU, WHO, UN?
Given the convenience and simplicity of the UK definition I’d say it’s a good contender.
I think it should be standardised globally and the WHO would seem to be the most appropriate agent to take it on.
I don’t understand why there has to be a separate “unit” at all. Surely, if you say that men should not drink more than 28 cl and women 21 cl of alcohol per week, that is perfectly clear?
Presumably the reason why, in their wisdom, the authorities invented this superfluous “unit” is that they were afraid the general public would not understand and therefore would ignore advice based on centilitres. Or alternatively that they feared that people would be unable to do the simple arithmetic involved in translating a 75 cl bottle of wine at 12% ABV (”alcohol by volume”) to arrive at 9 cl. However, the arithmetic is exactly the same if you call centilitres “units”.
I think it would be best if we could persuade the authorities to call a spade a spade and redesignate “units” as centilitres.
I just think this is a brilliant example of where the metric system is being used in the UK yet being hidden from the tabloid-reading public. I’m sure if this started to get quoted in cl or ml rather than “units” somebody would soon turn around and blame Brussels for taking away another “traditional British” measurement.
Something similar happened a couple of years ago – I remember hearing a story on the radio one morning that the British clothing industry wanted to switch to using European clothes sizes in British shops to save money and reduce confusion – within 24 hours the tabloids were printing stories saying that it was the EU that wanted to impose this sensible change on us… I’m guessing that those who proposed this change decided it would be a bad move because it doesn’t seem to have happened.
In any case, using the same sort of measurement across all walks of life AND countries is to our benefit in the longer term, perhaps our government should propose through the EU that alcohol units are standardised using our system and see what happens!
On reflection I am very much pursuaded by Robin’s argument above.
I think the ‘unit’ was invented to make alcohol consumption easy to count in terms of typical drinks described as “half a pint of beer”, “small glass of wine” or “a measure of spirit”.
However if a unit is a cl then (as Robin says) why not call it that? The term ‘unit’ merely serves to obscure the way consumption is measured in different Health authorities across the world.
The real issue that needs to be addressed is what actually constitutes a safe rate of consumption. That particular goal post has been know to move. Whatever conclusion is reached they might just as well define it in terms of actual volume and use the SI as basis for it.
Although the term “unit of alcohol� was coined about thirty years ago, the Government has been very coy about explaining what it is. In fact the description that a “small glass of wine� contained one unit of alcohol is now very misleading. Very few restaurants or pubs use a 125 ml glass when serving wine – and even 125 ml of 12% wine contains 15 ml or 1.5 units of alcohol. When I pointed out to my wife that a “standard� 175 ml glass of wine contained over two units of alcohol, she was horrified – she had never realised that.
This is interesting, because it gives another compelling reason to complete the metrication of pub measures. Rather than saying that 1 pint contains 2 units – but only for 3.5% beers, you can simply say that the % alcohol is the number of units per litre. Easy peasy.
The World Health Organisation is a good idea, however perhaps the International Standards Organisation (ISO) needs to be involved. I assume that there isn’t an ISO standard for this, it needs checking; perhaps there already is an ISO standard or at least an international guideline. If there isn’t an ISO standard it may take a very long time for the ISO to publish one.
If % is used it must be made clear that it is % by volume.
I vote for mL. In the US, I also vote for getting rid of proof because it requires an additional calculation. (2 proof is 1% alcohol by volume)
I don’t know if you Brits still use (or ever used) proof.
mL and % by volume makes for easy math.