It’s ‘Up-2-You’ to find out the facts about alcohol and win great prizes!
The Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA) is urging young people to log on to www.up-2-you.net, the health website, and use the information in the alcohol section, to compete for some great prizes.
This site is packed with information on health topics including smoking, passive smoking, drugs and mental health, and now incorporates a new section on alcohol, which has been developed in response to current concerns about underage drinking.
Victoria Creasy, Senior Manager for Public Health at the HPA, said: “The aim of the site is to provide the facts about a number of health topics for young people so they will be equipped with the right information to make decisions about issues that could have a major impact on their health. The new alcohol section has been developed in response to the current concerns about underage drinking, as research shows, the average age for young people to have their first drink in Northern Ireland is 11 years.1
“Alcohol use among young people is of particular concern as they are more vulnerable than adults to suffering physical, emotional and social harm from their own and other people’s drinking. There are also links between high risk drinking and unsafe sexual behaviour, traffic and other accidents, unintended pregnancy, failure at school and mental health problems.
“Visitors to the alcohol area of the site will be able to find information on various aspects of drinking including the different strengths of alcoholic drinks, how alcohol can impact on your health and what to do if someone you know has drunk too much. In relation to safe limits of drinking it is stressed that while there are guidelines on the site these are strictly developed for people over 18 only as there are no ”safe” guidelines for young people under the age of 18. Their bodies are still developing so alcohol will affect them much quicker and do more damage than it would to an adult.”
A competition running on the site until 9 April 2007, offers an exciting range of prizes, including iPod nanos, camera mobile phones and clothes vouchers. While the site is aimed at 11 to 14 year olds, anyone under the age of 18 living in Northern Ireland can enter the competition. The online entry form can be used from today so find out the facts not the fiction by logging onto: www.up-2-you.net to get the real story on health issues and you could be in with a chance of winning a great prize
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Notes to the Editor:
Victoria Creasy, Senior Manager for Public Health will be available for interview from 1.00pm on Tuesday 5 December 2006.
Competition entry cards and posters will be distributed to all schools throughout Northern Ireland during December. The closing date for the competition is 9 April 2007.
Up-2-You was launched in 2000 and during competition periods the site receives over 6,000 hits per day.
For further information contact:
Jenny Dougan or Rosie McGaughey at the HPA on Tel: 028 9031 1611 or 9031 1514.
1. Drinking behaviour among young people in Northern Ireland - secondary analysis of alcohol data from 1997 to 2003. Belfast: HPA and Irish Temperance League, October 2005.
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