Women who drink regularly face an increased risk of breast cancer, say U.K. health officials who are launching a public-education campaign aimed at middle-aged women.

The BBC reported March 22 that the U.K. Department of Health said that women who consume more than 14 standard units of alcohol weekly raise their risk of developing breast cancer by 50 percent. They noted that with stronger wines being poured into bigger glasses in pubs, a single glass of wine can contain up to 3.5 units of alcohol.

"It's fair to say that most women don't know how much they're drinking," said U.K. Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo. "They don't know how many units they drinking. And don't know that, at 3.5 units, that large glass of Rioja they drank last night actually took them over their daily amount."

Experts say that alcohol use causes about 2,000 breast-cancer cases a year in the U.K.