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UK binge drinking 'at crisis levels'

Despite that, most experts agree that Britons, on the whole, don't drink more than other Europeans. In fact, overall alcohol consumption levels here have come down since the mid-2000s.

But that's the average. The problem seems to lie with a minority of hard-core drinkers who tend to down a huge amount in a short time.

"The key point is the ways in which we behave when we're drinking - it involves very public displays of reckless drunkenness," said Jamie Bartlett, a researcher at the London-based think tank Demos who has written about alcohol abuse.

"It's not an issue of consumption. It's an issue of behavior."

The legal drinking age in Britain is 18, compared to 21 in the US, but many drinkers start younger. Social workers say lax control of retail sales and cheap alcohol, commonly available for less than 70 pence ($1.10) a can in supermarkets, makes it easy for young people to experiment with liquor.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.