The Sense Group, which is the alcohol industry's sensible drinking lobby, today launched a website aimed at helping people understand the consequences of one drink too many.

The site www.drinkawaremalta.com contains information to help alcohol consumers understand their limits and how alcohol works on the body. It also provides tips on how to drink sensibly by, for example, avoiding drunk driving by allocating a designated driver for the night.

TSG chief executive Joseph Farrugia said that this website would eventually be translated into Maltese.

Speaking during a business breakfast, he added that TSG planned to continue with its sensible drinking campaigns and, later this year, planned to launch a code of practice for the industry. The code would include points on advertising and packaging.

European Commissioner John Dalli said that reducing the burden of alcohol-related harm was one of the toughest challenges in the EU's health field. About 23 million Europeans were dependent on alcohol and statistics showed that alcohol-related ill health cost the EU 1.3 per cent of its GDP, he said.

Mr Dalli added that the World Health Organisation had also established that a quarter of deaths among young people were connected to alcohol consumption.

"We have a responsibility to take stronger measures to protect the most vulnerable," he said, adding that this was not only up to governments and health professions.

He said he was glad to see the involvement of NGO sand the industry itself.

Sociologist Stephen Quensel stressed that alcohol consumption patterns were related to cultures. For this reason, the key to tacking problems lay in tacking the cultural cores.