Hong Kong universities urged to ban alcohol sales on campus
Tung Wah poll reveals one in five students binge drink, and many don't realise the harmful effects
A hospital group has called for a ban on the sale of alcohol on campuses after its study showed that a fifth of university students had engaged in binge drinking but only 1 per cent admitted they had a drinking problem.
"[They] seem to have little vigilance in regard to alcohol consumption, thus they binge drink more often than ordinary people," the hospital group's community services secretary, Ivan Yiu Tze-leung, said.
The group's "Stay Sober, Stay Free" alcohol-addiction treatment project asked 469 university students aged 18 to 25 about their drinking habits before the summer break this year.
About 20 per cent of the respondents - mostly male - said they had "binge drunk" in the previous month, while almost two-thirds said they had consumed some alcohol in that time.
Binge drinking, according to the Department of Health, means consuming five or more glasses or cans of alcoholic drinks in a row.
Project supervisor Brenda Chung Yin-ting said binge drinking was a serious problem, but just 1 per cent of respondents admitted they might have a problem.