English holidaymakers are turning to drink on their breaks with the average adult consuming eight alcoholic drinks a day, a survey suggests. But 70% of the 3,500 adults questioned by the Department of Health said they plan to make September the “new January” by cutting back.

NHS guidelines advise no more than two to three units a day for women or three to four units for men – roughly equal to a large glass of wine for women and two pints of beer for men. The Know Your Limits campaign survey found that on an average day on holiday, beer drinkers drank five pints, wine drinkers had four glasses of wine, and those who prefer spirits had five mixer drinks, such as vodka and coke.

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Beer and wine bottles should carry graphic images of diseased livers similar to campaigns featured on cigarette boxes in an effort to curb the country’s alcohol abuse, the British Medical Association (BMA) will propose this week.

As part of the BMA’s campaign against “the growing problems of excessive alcohol consumption and of binge drinking in society”, other motions to be tabled at its annual representatives’ meeting in Edinburgh include calls for the government to make units per drink a mandatory requirement on alcohol labels and on bar taps, and encouraging legislation to prevent supermarkets discounting alcohol

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