INTERNATIONAL experts meeting in the North-East have called for all alcohol advertising to be banned and minimum drink pricing introduced.

The Addiction and Lifestyle in Contemporary Europe conference - held in Newcastle this week - aims to tackle the massive financial and social problems caused by addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

Experts have calculated that one in eight deaths in the UK between 15-64 years old is due to alcohol and this costs every one of of us £240 a year.

Britons and other Europeans drink more than twice the world's average and alcohol represents the number one addiction problem in the UK today, greater than any other drug or gambling and costing the NHS more than £2.7 bn every year.

Professor Eileen Kaner,director of the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University, said: "Alcohol costs the UK so much in so many ways, both in financial and social impacts. Governments need to have a clear and un-biased view of the most up-to-date research on alcohol problems and be bolder about tackling some of the root causes such as overly cheap alcohol and irresponsible marketing that encourages heavy drinking.”

She said she felt that there was growing agreement between the public and policy-makers that something must be done.

“I think there is more political will than we have ever known and the public are alive to this debate and receptive to the idea that it is part of the governments responsibility,” she added.

Prof Kaner said she believed the most cost-effective way of reducing the harm caused by alcohol would be to reduce demand by banning advertising and implementing a minimum price per unit.

The Scottish Government announced on Monday it would implement a 50p per unit minimum charge.

Professor Peter Anderson, who specialises in alcohol and addiction policies at the universities of Newcastle and Maastricht, said stricter regulations on drink were being discussed by governments across the EU.

He said: “If England really introduces a minimum unit price, other countries will be persuaded to follow. At the moment it is a waiting game.”

Prof Anderson said Finland was in the process of strengthening its advertising laws, while in France, alcohol adverts cannot be shown on television or in the cinema.

The experts argue that the most effective policy approaches are those which nudge people towards a lower consumption of alcohol by moderating price and availability and by banning alcohol advertising.