www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Tough college alcohol policies reduce underage and binge drinking on campus without causing a compensatory rise in marijuana use, according to investigators at the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR) at Children’s Hospital Boston.
The CeASAR study team surveyed students and administrators at 11 Massachusetts colleges and universities to assess the results of a more restrictive alcohol use enforcement policy put forth by the Mass. Board of Higher Education. (Source: Join Together, 8/17/10)

“Violence against nurses and other medical professionals appears to be increasing around the country as the number of drug addicts, alcoholics and psychiatric patients showing up at emergency rooms climbs. Nurses have responded, in part, by seeking tougher criminal penalties for assaults against health care workers. … Visits to ERs for drug- and alcohol-related incidents climbed from about 1.6 million in 2005 to nearly 2 million in 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. From 2006 to 2008, the number of those visits resulting in violence jumped from 16,277 to 21,406, the agency said.” (Source: Medical News Today, 8/12/10)

Personality Traits Linked To Mental Illness And Hazardous Alcohol Usage In Doctors.
Certain personality traits, demographic and work related factors increase the likelihood that doctors will develop mental illness or hazardous alcohol habits according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Dr Louise Nash, from the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry and University of Sydney and co-authors conducted a study to identify factors associated with psychiatric morbidity and hazardous alcohol use in Australian doctors. A total of 2999 doctors participated in the study. (Source: Medical News Today, 8/2/10)

Australian workers are significantly affected by other people’s alcohol drinking and at a considerable cost, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Caroline Dale, from Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Michael Livingston, from Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Melbourne, conducted a study to estimate the cost of extra time worked by Australian workers due to their co-workers’ alcohol drinking. (Source: Medical News Today, 8/2/10)

Binge and underage drinking are societal problems that college officials can’t be expected to solve, according to a speaker at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association (ACHA).
USA Today reported June 4 that Edward P. Ehlinger, head of the Boynton Health Service at the University of Minnesota, said that current efforts to combat dangerous drinking among college students aren’t working. “I don’t think the problem of alcohol is an underage problem. It is not a college or university problem,” he said. “I think alcohol is a community problem — it is a societal problem.” (Source: Join Together, 6/11/10) with our online comment

There is evidence that the adverse consequences of alcohol impose a substantial economic burden on societies worldwide. Given the lack of generalizability of study results across different settings, many attempts have been made to estimate the economic costs of alcohol for various settings; however, these have mostly been confined to industrialized countries. To our knowledge, there are a very limited number of well-designed studies which estimate the economic costs of alcohol consumption in developing countries, including Thailand. Therefore, this study aims to estimate these economic costs, in Thailand, 2006. (Source: BMC Public Health, 6/9/10))

Starting July 1, store owners in Indiana will be required to check legal photo identification from all alcohol buyers, regardless of how old they appear, the Associated Press reported June 5.
The law will apply to any establishment selling “carry-out” alcohol — such as liquor stores, convenience stores, pharmacies and supermarkets — but not restaurants, bars, and other businesses where drinks are consumed on the premises. (Source: Join Together, 6/8/10)

..in Washington State, USA
Just how low is a big-box retailer willing to stoop to undermine state authority over alcohol to increase its own bottom line? Costco is apparently willing go pretty darn low. The retail giant is making its employees gather signatures from customers in Washington State for a ballot initiative that would eliminate the state’s control over spirits sales.
Initiative 1100 would remove the state’s role in the sale of alcohol once and for all, as well as remove current restrictions on volume discounts, among other worrisome provisions that would deal a serious blow to state-based alcohol regulation. (Source: Marin Institute, 6/4/10)

A novel study by German researchers reported that alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking were associated with increased migraines and tension-type headaches (TTH) in high school students. Coffee drinking and physical inactivity were associated specifically with migraines. Results of this study, the first to investigate modifiable risk factors for different types of headaches in a youth population, appear online early in Headache, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Headache Society. (Source: Medical News Today, 6/7/10)

Over 520,000 people in the United Kingdom arrive at work with a hangover each day, according to a study carried out by Drinkaware, a UK charity claiming to provide consumers with information to make informed decisions about the effects of alcohol on their lives and lifestyles.
The study, released today, shows that the average Brit goes to work suffering the after effects of excessive alcohol three times monthly. Of those who admit to being hung over, 17% confess to struggling to keep on top of their workload and to making mistakes. 7% of people with a hangover say they had to leave work early because they did not feel well enough to carry on.
With the World Cup football (soccer) tournament starting next month, Drinkaware believes these figures will spike in June and July, having a direct impact on productivity throughout the country. (Source: Medical News Today, 5/26/10)