Cheers! Brits toast new shatterproof pint glass

LONDON — British officials unveiled shatterproof pint glasses Thursday, swearing that the country would save billions in health-care costs by coming up with a glass that doesn't double as a lethal weapon.

But no officials were talking about reforming the British binge-drinking culture at the root of the problem.

There are about 87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks each year, with many resulting in hospital visits, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said as he introduced the two prototype shatterproof pint glasses.

Two types of shatterproof technologies are under study: one has a thin bioresin coating on the inside that strengthens it, and the other bonds two thin layers of glass together in the same way as car windshields. Both are difficult to break and keep the shards together if they do fracture, rendering them useless as weapons.

The government is touting the prototypes as the first significant improvement in bar glassware in decades. The plan is to introduce the new glasses for use on a voluntary basis in pubs if tests show they are durable, cost-effective and safe.

Half of all violent assaults in Britain are alcohol-related, and it has become common for drinkers to smash glasses and use them as weapons, said Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, a charity working to lessen alcohol abuse in Britain.

The government estimates alcohol-related problems cost the National Health Service $4.3 billion a year.

A shatterproof pint could still be used as a club in a fight, but it wouldn't produce lethal shards of glass with the cutting power of a sharp knife.

The new glasses will be used on a trial basis by a major pub chain that was not named.

Plastic glasses were not an option because experience shows that drinkers are not happy with them, said Matt Cotterill, creative director at Design Bridge, which helped design the new glasses.