www.alkoholpolitik.ch

by Fiona Ryan, Director of Alcohol Action Ireland, the national charity for alcohol-related issues.
WE LOVE TO talk about Ireland’s alcohol culture – it allows us to speculate about how we drink and why we drink, without ever actually doing anything about it.
We can engage in romantic notions of the dark Celtic soul, or question if as a nation we just have an addictive personality. In the meantime, one person dies every seven hours from an alcohol-related cause. Alcohol is the biggest killer of young people in Ireland and 100,000 kids – enough to fill Croke Park and then some – are impacted by their parents’ drinking. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 08/15/11) businessinsider.com, 08/10/11

The Finnish Customs and Finnish State Railways (VR) are planning closer inspection of express train services between Finland and Russia. A scanning of an entire train was tested for the first time in Helsinki on Tuesday.
Currently on-board train inspections are carried out using sniffer dogs in addition to a manual check of all possible hiding places. This procedure is time consuming and often ineffective. …
Chief Inspector Kai Vehmersalo of the National Customs Board says the use of scanners could improve the search for illegal immigrants in addition to consignments of contraband tobacco, alcohol and drugs hidden in isolated train compartments. However, the cash for scanners is not yet on the financial timetable in either country. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 08/15/11) yle.fi, 08/9/11

Holding alcohol retailers liable for injuries or damage done by their intoxicated customers can reduce motor vehicle deaths, homicides, injuries, and other alcohol-related problems, according to the Community Preventive Services Task Force. The independent, nonfederal, volunteer body of public health and prevention experts has determined that commercial host liability, otherwise known as dram shop liability, can be an effective intervention for reducing alcohol-related harms. … (Source: Google Alcohol News, 08/10/11) finanznachrichten.de, 10.8.11

… with and without a recent history of sexual violence.
Alcohol misuse among college students is a significant public health problem that can have negative long-term implications. One important correlate of problem drinking among college female populations is sexual violence. The current study investigated: (1) past year sexual violence and its association with alcohol consumption and related psychosocial variables (stress, coping, and mental health); and (2) whether the impact of an alcohol intervention was different for college women with a history of sexual violence compared to those without such a history. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 07/24/11)

Underage drinking and associated problems have profound negative consequences for underage drinkers, their families, their communities, and society as a whole. Underage drinking contributes to a wide range of costly health and social problems, including motor vehicle crashes (the greatest single mortality risk for underage drinkers); suicide; interpersonal violence (e.g., homicides, assaults, rapes); unintentional injuries such as burns, falls, and drowning; brain impairment; alcohol dependence; risky sexual activity; academic problems; and alcohol and drug poisoning. On average, alcohol is a factor in the deaths of approximately 4,700 youths in the United States per year, shortening their lives by an average of 60 years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] Alcohol-Related Disease Impact [ARDI] software, 2009b). … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 07/21/11)

A craze for a ‘turbo-charged’ alcoholic energy drink as strong as wine and sold in pint cans has lead to a rise in violence, police have claimed.
One can of ‘Crunk Juce’ is the equivalent of drinking a pint of wine mixed with an energy drink.
‘Crunk Juce’ is 12 per cent proof and marketed as an alternative to beer and wine that will ‘leave you wondering what happened’.
But police say drinkers of ‘Crunk’ – slang for being crazy drunk – are increasingly involved in crime and are now working with trading standards to investigate its impact on public health. (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 7/19/11)metro.co.uk, 06/26/11

Reports of a rise in counterfeit alcohol production have hit the news following a blast that killed 5 people in Boston, Lincolnshire.
In a BBC report on the Growing problem of illegally distilled alcohol, Trading Standards said that in some parts of the UK up to a quarter of licensed premises had been found to be selling counterfeit alcohol. It also reported that alcohol fraud costs the UK about £1bn a year in lost revenue, including £300m from illegal spirit sales, according to government estimates. Over £13 million of smuggled alcohol was seized last year. … (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 07/15/11)

Since 2006, Australia has had graphic image warnings on cigarette packages. Now announced this week, the liquor industry is volunteering to label its products with health warnings also. About 80% of alcohol sold in the country will carry the warnings.
According to government statistics, the proportion of people drinking at high risk level has increased from 8.2% in 1995 to 13.4% in 2005, when the last National Health Survey was conducted. The increase has been greater for women. … (Source: Medical News Today, 07/12/11)

On October the 27th the Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy (STAP) will host the first European network conference on reducing youth drinking by law enforcement. Law enforcement experts and professionals from all over Europe will be able to exchange knowledge and experiences during a conference specifically focussed on enforcing alcohol legislation. Although regulations, policies and responsibilities differ by country, there are similar enforcement topics that apply to all. Effective enforcement of legal age limits is one of the main themes of the conference. Because the knowledge about law enforcement in Europe has grown substantially over the last decades it is the right moment to organise the first European alcohol enforcement meeting. … (Source: stap.nl, 6/27/11)

- does the prevention paradox apply?
According to the prevention paradox a majority of alcohol-related problems in a population can be attributed to low to moderate drinkers simply because they are more numerous than heavy drinkers, who have a higher individual risk of adverse outcomes. We examined the prevention paradox in annual alcohol consumption, heavy episodic drinking (HED), and alcohol-related problems among adolescents in 23 European countries.
Survey data from the 2007 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) among 16-year-old students were analysed.
A total of 38 370 alcohol-consuming adolescents (19 936 boys and 18 434 girls) from 23 European countries were included.
The upper 10% and the bottom 90% of drinkers by annual alcohol intake, with or without HED, and frequency of HED, were compared for the distribution of 10 different alcohol-related problems. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 06/18/11)