What is a unit of alcohol?
One unit is 10 ml or 8 g of pure alcohol in the UK. But different alcoholic drinks come in different strengths and sizes, so it can be difficult to be aware of how much alcohol you are having (Figure 6).
Some drinks are labelled ‘ABV’, which means ‘alcohol by volume’. This is also sometimes written as ‘vol’ or ‘alcohol volume’. Again, this makes it difficult to determine how many units of alcohol you are having.
Activity 8 Working out your units of alcohol
Allow approximately 10 minutes.
The formula for working out units using ABV is: Strength (ABV) × volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = units
How many units are there in a pint of strong lager (ABV 5.2%)?
Try to work it out rather than using a unit calculator. Work out the units you drink when you go out compared with having alcohol at home.
Click ‘Save’ when you are satisfied with what you have written.
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