Woman's Hour - 20/10/2009

With Jane Garvey. Last week a coroner warned of the dangers of binge drinking after the death of a talented schoolgirl who is believed to have drunk up to half a litre of vodka at a party. Woman's Hour asks what can be done to tackle the problem of young women binge drinking. The progrmme hears from some young women about why they were binge drinking and what made them stop. Jane is also joined by Sarah Payne, the chief executive of the YWCA, who are holding a conference on the subject, and Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Chair of the Committee on Alcohol. There's no doubt that the green label helps to sell; everywhere you look, businesses are adding the prefix 'eco-' to their products. But how do we know if something is truly sustainable and not just a gimmick, and is it enough to be eco if the design isn't good? Woman's Hour hears from Marianne Gulbrandsen from the Design Council along with an exhibitor from the Eco Design Show, part of the Liverpool Design Festival. Marianne North was an intrepid Victorian botanical artist who travelled around the world in search of rare exotic plants. She donated her life's work to Kew Gardens in 1882 and paid for a new gallery to be built to house them. That gallery has now been restored as part of Kew's 250th anniversary year and has just opened. Jane visits to Kew to hear about North's intrepid life and the restoration of her paintings, as the gallery prepares to open to the public.