A LEADING academic has branded Buckfast an environmental health risk and wants the tonic wine bottled in plastic.

Dr Alasdair Forsyth of Caledonian University has just published the results of a study on the amount of broken glass dumped by street drinkers in the West of Scotland.

Broken Buckfast bottles accounted for nearly three out of every five bits of broken glass found in an unnamed town near Glasgow.

A group led by the academic set out to establish the origins of broken glass, including potential jagged weapons dumped on the streets of eight residential areas.

More than two thirds of the 589 items of glassware identified by the group consisted of broken glass.

In his report, published in the journal Alcohol Insight, Dr Forsyth said: "The majority of this glassware was Buckfast bottles, which were significantly more likely to be smashed than other brands."

He said the wine accounted for 54% of all dumped glass and 58.7% of smashed glass.

Dr Forsyth, an expert on alcohol-related crime, told the Evening Times that the product was often to blame for the fragments of glass found in streets.

And he added: "If Sainsbury's can bottle their own wines in plastic, then Buckfast can be packaged the same way."

He said bottles left lying in the street acted as free "viral" advertising, and added: "It is easily noticed by children, particularly if left where they play."

The pilot study was set up with the co-operation of licensed and unlicensed grocers in a West of Scotland town, unnamed to protect the identity of stores involved.

However, a spokesman for Buckfast owners J Chandler said he did not believe the product was responsible for such a high proportion of broken glass.

He insisted that buyers, rather than producers were the problem and pointed out that plastic bottles would also constitute a litter hazard.

He added: "It is is up to the individual purchaser not to leave litter and for councils and the police to enforce the law."