The World Health Organisation has produced a draft global strategy on problems caused by alcohol.

It was a roundabout way for me to read the UK government’s chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, chapter of his 2008 annual report covering “passive drinking”, the damage that heavy drinkers wreak on others. To illustrate the extent of the problem in the UK, he reported that in 2008, there were 125,000 “alcohol-related instances of domestic violence”, that an estimated 6000 babies are born annually with fetal alcohol syndrome and that in 2006, 7000 people were injured and 560 killed as a result of drink-driving, not including the drivers.

The term passive drinking is new to me. But blimey that 125,000 would equate to around 30 instances of domestic violence every year in East Dulwich ward alone.