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Eighth plenary meeting of the European Alcohol and health Forum, Brussels, 8 April 2011 – Summary report available
Released 06 June 2011
European Alcohol and Health Forum – List of members updated
Released 24 May 2011
8th meeting of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action, Luxembourg, 1-2 March 2011 – Summary report and presentations available
(Source: EU, 06/06/11)

8th meeting of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action, Luxembourg, 1-2 March 2011 Summary report and presentations available:
http://ec.europa.eu/health/alcohol/events/ev_20110301_en.htm (Download very slow, dates maybe too big.)

A proposed measure would require universal ID checks for anyone buying alcohol in Anchorage, AK liquor stores and bars. An earlier version of the bill included restaurants, but that provision has been dropped, according to The Anchorage Daily News.
The Anchorage Assembly will consider the measure Tuesday. An advisory vote in an April city election favored the bill 2-1. The ordinance is designed to curb underage drinking and to catch people who try to buy alcohol even though they have been court-ordered not to do so. … (Source: Join Together, 5/9/11)

MOSCOW — The World Health Organization focused for decades on infectious diseases, but now it’s putting non-communicable diseases near the top of its agenda.
The fight against heart disease, diabetes, stroke, lung cancer and chronic respiratory disease may not seem as heroic as the struggle against smallpox or H1N1, but chronic illnesses account for 63 percent of deaths worldwide — 70 percent in the United States and 90 percent in Russia.
“And these are preventable,” said Margaret Chan, director general of WHO, at a three-day series of meetings here this week devoted to chronic diseases. “People don’t have to suffer. People don’t have to die.”
No tobacco and less sugar, fat and especially salt are WHO’s top targets; reducing alcohol consumption and increasing exercise are right behind. Those factors alone account for 25 million of the 36 million deaths attributable to chronic diseases annually, according to WHO, and place a huge economic burden on families and nations. (Source: Harvard World Health News, 5/5/11) washingtonpost.com, 4/29/11

An interim report on binge drinking has been released by Demos:
Under_the_Influence By ‘binge-drinking’, the report refers not to the Government definition of drinking twice the recommended guidelines on one occasion, but as “young adults that drink to extreme excess, often in an intentionally reckless and very public way, putting themselves and others at risk of harm.” The report analyses the causes of, and possible responses to, binge-drinking among young adults aged 18-25 in the UK, including:
Recommendations: interventions targeted at individuals
Recommendations: nudges and environmental changes
Recommendations: changing social norms
(Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 04/28/11) demos.co.uk, March 2011

Almost six million people die from tobacco use and 2.5 million from harmful use of alcohol each year worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
The WHO report on non-communicable diseases—including diabetes, cancer and respiratory and heart diseases—says that a large percentage of these conditions could be prevented by reducing tobacco and alcohol use, eating a healthier diet and exercising more. …
Alcohol-related deaths account for 3.8 percent of all deaths worldwide, according to the report. More than half of these deaths occur from non-communicable diseases including cancer, heart disease and liver cirrhosis. …
To reduce harmful alcohol use, WHO recommends a number of measures including increasing excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, regulating availability of alcoholic beverages (including minimum legal purchase age), restricting exposure to marketing of alcoholic beverages through marketing regulations or comprehensive advertising bans, and treatment of alcohol use disorders and brief interventions for hazardous and harmful drinking. (Source: Join Together, 04/27/11)

The European Parliament rapporteur on the EU Budget recently released his draft report on the future EU Budget. Health and civil society are not mentioned in the report. This is worrying as this report will be the European Parliament position on what the priorities of the EU should be for the coming 5 to 7 years.
The health community can find below a summary of the report as well as the list of key MEPs to contact in order to advocate for public health to be taken into account by the European Parliament.
The rapporteur Salvador GARRIGA POLLEDO MEP (EPP Spain), states that the structure of the future EU Budget (‘Multi Annual Financial Perspectives MAFF’) should reflect the EU priorities, particularly the Europe 2020. However, he also recognises that the Europe 2020 is not an all-inclusive strategy covering all Union policy fields and therefore stresses that other Treaty-based policies pursuing different objectives will also need to be duly reflected in the next MAFF.
According to EPHA and its partners, the report is problematic as it does not mention public health, funding for civil society and it only considers inclusion in its role to increase growth.
It is therefore of utmost importance that the European health community gets active to support appropriate European Funding for health in the coming years. The European Commission is likely to make a its proposal in June 2011 and actions beforehand towards the European Commission and MEPs are welcomed.
Source: Eurocare Newsletter March-April 2011/EPHA)

In the framework of the PROTECT project, a meeting with all stakeholders involved in alcohol labelling policy was organized by the CRIOC and Eurocare on the 17th of March 2011 in the European Parliament in Brussels. The European institutions (European Commission – EC – and Parliament – EP), the beverage industry, consumer organisations, NGOs, media, youth organizations as well as the public were invited to exchange around measurable best practices on alcohol labelling.
The seminar was hosted by Alyn Smith (The Green /EFA Alliance in the EP), who said in his introductory speech that “even though the EU does not have direct competence in health matters, all members states could greatly benefit from such meetings, in order to exchange ideas and best practices”. He was in this sense “delighted to see representatives from all stakeholders, especially from the industry” since he does not believe in “digging trenches” but rather in “open and genuine debates”. The complete program, all the presentations as well as video recordings of the different speakers can be found here.(pdf) (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/13/11)

Read Full Report (PDF)

The U.S Federal Trade Commission, in response to wildly proliferating alcohol advertising in both traditional and new media, is conducting another review of the effectiveness of the alcohol industry’s self-regulation. The agency is seeking comments from the public, so we need your help.
In our 2008 report titled “Why Big Alcohol Can’t Police Itself: A Review of Self-Regulation in the Distilled Spirits Industry,” Marin Institute concluded that the industry’s voluntary guidelines fail to protect underage youth from exposure to inappropriate alcohol advertising. If you’re concerned about the effects of alcohol advertising on our youth, please submit your comments here, by Tuesday, April 26. To read Marin Institute’s comments, click here. Please submit your comments to the FTC today.

Children can make a real difference in their communities. A new manual on rights-based research from Concerned for Working Children (CWC) in Bangalore, India shows how children can be empowered to influence their community and also local alcohol policies. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/14/11) add-recources.org, 03/14/11