Conservatives want to abolish alcohol units system

Tefal said:
Seriously you honestly think it;s easier to tell the proportionate amount of alcohol from 16.5ml in 330ml.

Than just 5%...

:confused:
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Yes you'll be surprised how many people can't work out percentages and as such have no idea how much alcohol is in a drink.

dirtydog said:
You can compare now with the units system.
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But it means little, or that's 1 unit this is 2 units. Oh I've drunken 10ml is a lot easier to compare, add up and for people to understand.
 
AcidHell2 said:
It's about giving people information they understand. Units fails at this.
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Why do units fail at this?

Unit recommendations are made based on how much it is safe for an adult to consume. 2-3 for women, 4-3 for men. People know that this is considered a safe amount to consume. More results in health risks and risk of inebriation.

What the government can't do is say "x units makes you drunk" as it affects everyone differently. But people know that more then the daily recommended limit is risking both health and sobriety.

How is putting cl going to change anything? Again the government can't say "x cl will make you drunk" because everyone is different. So you swap one rather vague labelling system that everyone is familiar with for another that no one in this country is used too.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
100ml, or 1 tenth of a litre. End of discussion.

Instead of:
"Nah, my mate barry said 2 pints is one unit."
"You're having a laugh; my postie told me 1 pint is 4 units."
"Don't be silly Errol, it depends what you are drinking. 5 pints of Carling is one unit!"
"Gotcha mate, right.. time to drive the kids home!"
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Most bottles have what 1 unit is in ml, printed on them last time I looked.
 
dirtydog said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8455252.stm

I think this is a terrible idea. Many people are familiar with the units system and I don't think it would be any more meaningful to people to say their can of lager has 20cl of alcohol, than to say it has two units. It isn't broken, don't fix it.
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20cl of pure alcohol in 20 units

10ml of alcohol is 1 unit, 1 cl is 10ml
 
Dj_Jestar said:
100ml, or 1 tenth of a litre. End of discussion.

Instead of:
"Nah, my mate barry said 2 pints is one unit."
"You're having a laugh; my postie told me 1 pint is 4 units."
"Don't be silly Errol, it depends what you are drinking. 5 pints of Carling is one unit!"
"Gotcha mate, right.. time to drive the kids home!"
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No, they would say 'how much is it' meaning, how drunk will it make me. Being able to picture that amount of liquid in their mind's eye is not what they mean.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
100ml, or 1 tenth of a litre. End of discussion.

Instead of:
"Nah, my mate barry said 2 pints is one unit."
"You're having a laugh; my postie told me 1 pint is 4 units."
"Don't be silly Errol, it depends what you are drinking. 5 pints of Carling is one unit!"
"Gotcha mate, right.. time to drive the kids home!"
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Given that it's not going to be written on the pint glass in big red letters either way, I fail to see how this is going to help.

Besides, it's not like most people can do percentages in their heads, and certainly not after a few drinks. It's all well and good that I can figure out how much alcohol is in a pint with an alcohol content of 5.6% (Stella is about that, yeah?) but I'm Rain Man compared to the average maths impaired idiot.
 
platypus said:
Why do units fail at this?

Unit recommendations are made based on how much it is safe for an adult to consume. 2-3 for women, 4-3 for men. People know that this is considered a safe amount to consume. More results in health risks and risk of inebriation.

What the government can't do is say "x units makes you drunk" as it affects everyone differently. But people know that more then the daily recommended limit is risking both health and sobriety.

How is putting cl going to change anything? Again the government can't say "x cl will make you drunk" because everyone is different. So you swap one rather vague labelling system that everyone is familiar with for another that no one in this country is used too.
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And still, so many people just don't know exactly how much a unit is, but will know how much mls/cls are. Not in respect to how drunk it will make them, but because they will all have used litres/millilitres/centilitres at some point in their life.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
That isn't true, and this is the problem. A 'unit' depends a lot on the person, which is why it is a poor system of measurement.
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A unit is 10ml. It does not depend on the person.

The problem here is not the system, but that people like you don't know what they're talking about.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
That isn't true, and this is the problem. A 'unit' means nothing in isolation and depends a lot on the person, which is why it is a poor system of measurement.

@dirtydog - just because people are comfortable with a 'poor' system of measurement doesn't mean it isn't broken
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Many measurements we use aren't ideal - such as feet, inches, miles, gallons etc. but many of us are more comfortable with those and understand them and what they mean, so we stick with them.

We aren't going to change all our road signs to kilometres just because km is a 'better' measurement than a mile. (I hope)
 
dirtydog said:
No, they would say 'how much is it' meaning, how drunk will it make me. Being able to picture that amount of liquid in their mind's eye is not what they mean.
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Then you can translate it to "Your pint is a shade under 60cl, and is 5%, so you've got 3cl in your pint."

Where as with units, the confusion of exactly how much, in measurement, is a Unit will not end there.
 
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