Binge drinking

Binge drinking is an unhealthy way of drinking alcoholic beverages. When people binge drink, they usually drink a lot of alcohol in a short time, or drink with the goal of getting drunk.
Binge drinking is very common in the United States. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that in the U.S.:
What exactly is binge drinking?
Different researchers and countries sometimes have different definitions of what exactly binge drinking is.
United States.
In the United States, the most common definition of binge drinking was created by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2009. It says that binge drinking is a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings a person's blood alcohol content (BAC) to 0.08 or more. Blood alcohol content is the percentage of ethanol in the person's blood. (In the United States, a BAC of 0.08 means a person is legally drunk.) This means that a person would be binge drinking if:
United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service says that binge drinking is having "eight or more units [of alcohol] in a single [drinking] session for men and six or more for women." (Units are used in the United Kingdom to measure alcohol.) This means a person would be binge drinking if:
European Union.
A recent report paid for by the European Union suggested that binge drinking should be defined, across Europe, as drinking "60g alcohol (men) and 40g alcohol (women) in a period of about two hours."
Dangers of binge drinking.
Binge drinking can be dangerous. It can cause alcohol poisoning. If a person drinks too much, they can stop breathing and die. Binge drinking can also damage the liver.
Also, it increases binge drinkers' risks of having other problems. Binge drinkers are more likely than people who do not binge drink to: