THIS is a copy of a letter sent to today's Guardian newspaper by dozens of esteemed North-East medical professionals who have expressed their shock at a 400% per cent rise in incidents of liver damage caused by excess use of alcohol in the region.

Dear editor

When it comes to alcohol and the liver, the general rule is that the volume and duration of consumption determines whether someone will have a problem.

As recently as a decade ago, it was unusual for a liver specialist to treat anyone for alcoholic cirrhosis who had not reached their fifties.

Alarmingly, this is no longer the case. In the North East we are in the middle of an epidemic. We have witnessed a 400% increase in the number of 30-34 year olds being admitted into our hospitals with alcoholic liver disease since 2002.

This early onset is due to the fact that people are drinking at much earlier ages and in much greater quantities than ever before. The average adult now consumes just under 11 litres of pure alcohol each year, more than double the levels recorded in the 1950s.

People are consuming in this way because we’ve created an excessively pro-alcohol culture by selling alcohol for pocket money prices, promoting it heavily and widely and making it available 24 hours a day.

It’s clear we need to halt this epidemic in its tracks, otherwise we’ll soon be treating young men and women in their twenties on a regular basis for a disease that is 100% preventable.

That’s why we’re supporting en-masse a campaign which has been launched in our region by Balance, the North East Alcohol Office. It calls for Government to stop the alcohol industry recruiting our children and young people as the next generation of problem drinkers.

By preventing the alcohol industry from reaching children and young people through TV, social networking sites, under 18 films in the cinema and sponsorship of sporting and youth events, we begin to make drinking early and in large quantities less normal and less acceptable. We begin to change the excessively pro-alcohol culture which the alcohol industry spends an estimated £800m a year on marketing to sustain.

We need everyone who is concerned about the lives and futures of our children and young people to back this campaign and sign the petition at www.balancenortheast.co.uk

Yours sincerely,

• Chris Record, Consultant Physician and liver specialist at Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals
• James Crosby, Consultant Gastroenterologist, City Hospitals Sunderland
• Andrew Douglass , Consultant Gastroenterologist, South Tees NHS Trust
• Jane Metcalf, Honorary Senior Lecturer and Consultant Physician, North Tees and
Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
• Simon Cowlam, Consultant Gastroenterologist, City Hospitals Sunderland
• Stuart McPherson, Consultant Hepatologist Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Emma Johns, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Gateshead
• Elizabeth Phillips, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Northumbria Healthcare NHS
• Colin Rees, Consultant Gastroenterologist, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust
• Christopher Wells, Consultant Gastroenterologist, University Hospital of North Tees
• Anthoor Jayaprakash, Consultant Physician & Gastroenterologist, Wansbeck Hospital
• Deepak Dwarakanath, Consultant Physician, University Hospital of North Durham
• Zahid Mahmood, Physician and Lead Gastrologist, North Cumbria University Hospitals
• S. Zafar Abbas, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Hexham General Hospital
• Dr Macklon, Consultant Physician & Gastroenterologist, University Hospital of North Durham
• Jitendra Singh, Consultant Gastroenterologist and General Physician, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead
• Peter Trewby, Consultant Physician, County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust
• Phil Matthews, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Diamond Joy, Consultant Gastroenterologist, The James Cook University Hospital
• Harriet Mitchison, Consultant Endoscopy, City Hospitals Sunderland
• Paul Cann, Consultant Gastroenterologist, The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
• David Hobday, Consultant Gastroenterologist, City Hospitals Sunderland
• Anjan Dhar, Consultant Gastroenterologist, University Hospital of North Durham
• Christopher Haigh, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Wansbeck Hospital
• Richard Thomas ,Consultant Physician, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
• Matt Rutter Consultant Gastroenterologist University Hospital of North Tees
• Mumtaz Hayat, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Physician, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Margaret Bessendine, Professor of Hepatology at Newcastle University and Hon. Consultant Hepatologist Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne
• David Oliver, Consultant Gastroenterologist, The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
• Arvind Ramadas, Consultant Gastroenterologist, The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough
• Jo Topping, Consultant Gastroenterologist, South Tyneside District Hospital
• Anand Reddy, Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead
• Babur Javaid, Consultant Gastroenterologist, North Cumbria University Hospitals
• Anil Bhagwat, Consultant, Hexham General Hospital
• Saksena Sushma, Consultant Physician and Hepatologist, University Hospital North Durham