ABOUT 8.9 percent of Shanghai residents are damaging their health by drinking a "harmful" level of alcohol, compared to the national average of 3.3 percent.

And some 6.8 percent of local people are drinking at a "hazardous" level, higher than the national 2.6 percent, local officials told the International Forum on City and Health at the Expo Center yesterday.

"I am shocked by the number of local people drinking too much, as Shanghainese are not considered people who like alcohol as much as those living in the (country's) north," Vice Mayor Shen Xiaoming said. "The high percentage of women drinking to excess also surprised me very much."

A man who drinks an average of 60g of alcohol a day or above is considered a harmful drinker. For a woman, the threshold is 40g. And the range for hazardous drinking is 40g-60g for men and 20g-40g for women.

About 9.8 percent of local men and 0.9 percent of local women are consuming harmful amounts of alcohol, while the national levels are 6.1 percent and 0.5 percent. In Shanghai, about 7.1 percent of men and 4.3 percent of women drink hazardous amounts of alcohol, while the national level is 4.2 percent and 0.8 percent, the forum heard.

"The risk factors for local people's health are complicated, but the major causes are unhealthy lifestyles, including smoking and excessive drinking, and obesity," Shen said. About 8.9 percent of local people are obese and 29.7 percent of people are smokers. Both percentages are a little higher than the national average.

The top causes of death in the city last year were non-contagious chronic diseases (92.2 percent), accidental injuries (5.31 percent) and infectious diseases, maternal and infant diseases and malnutrition, the forum heard.

"Though the local health service has made great achievements such as a long average life span and low mortality for pregnant women and infants, we still face many challenges like the rising number of elderly, people's unhealthy lifestyles and the growing incidence of cancer," Shen said.

Shanghai is to follow the example of Western countries in a forthcoming trial of a family doctor service featuring trained general physicians at neighborhood health centers, Shen said.

Family doctors will be the primary health providers for the public. Each doctor will serve 2,000 to 3,000 residents.

Shanghai will also set up a medical database for each resident with information shared by hospitals, communities, family doctors, government departments and residents.

The forum was also told that better health care for the elderly, better health services for students and a warningsystem to alert the public to weather conditions that could cause health problems would be set up in the city over the next few years.

• alcohol [´ælkəhɔl] n.酒精；醇 (初中英语单词)
• international [,intə´næʃənəl] a.国际的，世界的 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• percentage [pə´sentidʒ] n.百分数；比例；部分 (初中英语单词)
• excess [´ekses] n.超过 a.过分的 (初中英语单词)
• harmful [´hɑ:mful] a.有害的 (初中英语单词)
• complicated [´kɔmplikeitid] a.结构复杂的；难懂的 (初中英语单词)
• infant [´infənt] n.&a.婴(幼)儿 (初中英语单词)
• western [´westən] a.西的；西方的 (初中英语单词)
• neighborhood [´neibəhud] n.邻居；邻近；附近 (初中英语单词)
• primary [´praiməri] a.主要的 n.居首位的 (初中英语单词)
• medical [´medikəl] a.医学的；医疗的 (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
• threshold [´θreʃhəuld] n.门槛；入门；开端 (高中英语单词)
• excessive [ik´sesiv] a.过分的；极端的 (高中英语单词)
• infectious [in´fekʃəs] a.传染，传染(性)的 (高中英语单词)
• resident [´rezidənt] a.居住的 n.居民 (高中英语单词)
• accidental [,æksi´dentl] a.偶然的；附属的 (英语四级单词)
• maternal [mə´tə:nl] a.母亲的；母性(系)的 (英语四级单词)
• mortality [mɔ:´tæliti] n.致命性；死亡率 (英语四级单词)
• elderly [´eldəli] a. 较老的，年长的 (英语四级单词)
• warning [´wɔ:niŋ] n.警告；前兆 a.预告的 (英语四级单词)
• hazardous [´hæzədəs] a.危险的 (英语六级单词)
• chronic [´krɔnik] a.慢性的；剧烈的 (英语六级单词)
• pregnant [´pregnənt] a.怀孕的；含蓄的 (英语六级单词)
• forthcoming [,fɔ:θ´kʌmiŋ] a.即将到来的 (英语六级单词)