www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Andreas Blum präsentierte das untenstehende Referat an der Tagung der Stiftung „Wahrheit in den Medien“ (SWM) am 27. November in der Universität Luzern. Wir publizieren hier den Text mit seiner Genehmigung in der Integralfassung. Blum war von 1979-99 Direktor von Radio DRS.
Daraus ein Zitat: „Nur wenn sich der Journalismus auch als Unruhestifter im Interesse der Demokratie begreift, schafft er die Voraussetzung, dass wir unsere Mitverantwortung für die Gesellschaft überhaupt wahrnehmen können. Die Wahrhaftigkeit ist die Basis der Glaubwürdigkeit, der kategorische Imperativ des Journalismus. Das gilt in besonderem Masse für den Journalismus in einer demokratischen Gesellschaft. Ideologisierung, Lüge (auch die Lüge durch Verschweigen!) und Manipulation – das bewusste Ausblenden oder Verdrehen von Fakten und Argumenten im Dienst einer Interessen-gesteuerten journalistischen „Beweisführung“ – sind Gift für die Demokratie.“ (Quelle: journal21, 29.11.10) unser Online-Kommentar: Mit Ihrer Analyse bin ich völlig einverstanden. Ich habe mich schon vor ein paar Jahren beim Schweizer Presserat beschwert, dass die Presse die öffentliche Diskussion beim Alkoholproblem nicht ermöglicht. Die Beschwerde wurde, trotz klarer Beweislage, abgeschmettert. Es lief darauf hinaus, dass die Rechte und Pflichten der Journalisten, wie sie der Presserat auflistet, nicht bindend sind. Heute ist die Lage noch schlimmer. Wichtigste Informationen werden glatt unterdrückt. Dies hat nicht nur Folgen für die Demokratie, das kostet täglich Menschenleben.

To describe the presence of alcohol, cannabis and amphetamines in work-related injury deaths in Victoria, 2001–6, an observational study of work-related deaths reported to the State Coroner’s Office, Victoria, Australia was conducted.
Case and postmortem forensic toxicology data were obtained from the National Coroner’s Information System for work-related injury deaths with positive toxicology screens.
Over 6 years there were 43 worker deaths in a total of 355 unintentional work-related injury deaths. The coroner mentioned the presence of alcohol/drugs in 22 of the 43 worker deaths with positive toxicology screens. Toxicology screens were positive for alcohol and/or drugs in 79 work-related deaths overall. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/02/10) injuryprevention.bmj.com, Inj Prev 2010;16:423-428 doi:10.1136/ip.2010.027052

The HM Treasury today announced plans to change beer duty for certain strengths as part of Government plans ‚to review alcohol taxation to tackle problem drinking without unfairly penalising responsible drinkers, pubs and important local industries.‘
The Treasury announced its plans to introduce a new additional duty on beers over 7.5% abv in strength and a reduced rate of duty on beers at a strength of 2.8% abv or below. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/02/10) hm-treasury.gov.uk, 11/30/10 Comment: Interesting that it is now accepted: The price influences the consumption. But reducing the taxes on beer is an invitation for young people to start earlier. Maybe that’s the reason why this tax reform has been accepted by the industry.

The Department of Health has published the new White Paper Healthy lives, healthy people: our strategy for public health in England. It sets out the framework in which a new public health service, named Public Health England, will manage a ring-fenced budget of around £4 billion. The paper proposes Public Health England will take on full responsibilities from 2012 with the ring-fenced funding allocated to local government from April 2013 as Primary Care Trusts are removed. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/02/10) alcoholpolicy.net, 11/30/10

Active urges for more coherent strategies to stop the spread of HIV/ AIDS.
Active – sobriety, friendship and peace commemorates the World AIDS Day by sending our compassion to millions of victims and by urging decision makers to do more in fighting HIV/ AIDS.
The European Commission announced two things on the eve of World AIDS Day: a 10% increase in contributions, spending €1.3 billion to fight AIDS as well as a stronger effort to improve “early detection” allowing better and earlier treatment of the disease.
“Our members welcome the effort to step up action. But spending money is not enough. Improving testing is not enough. What we need is a coherent approach to fighting the AIDS epidemic. We want an effort to preventing HIV infections. That means that the EU, national governments as well as development NGOs need to take into consideration the role of alcohol,” according to Andrea Lavesson, President of Active.
The link between alcohol and the spread of HIV/ AIDS has been long known. But alcohol’s role in the AIDS epidemic continues to be neglected. Both in 2008 in Cape Town and in 2009 at the WHO expert conference in Stockholm alcohol’s role in the AIDS epidemic were on the agenda and the picture of the reviews became clear: Alcohol use increases risk taking in both injection drug use and sexual intercourse; it also increases the number of different sexual partners; the disease develops much faster in infected persons who drink. Alcohol weakens the immune system. …(Source: Press release Active, 12/01/10) ActiveHIVday2010

The major drink driving initiative launched in Hanoi as part of Global Actions on Harmful Drinking (www.global-actions.org) will be
co-implemented by ICAP and the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC).
The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) and Vietnam’s National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) today launched a Joint Initiative on Drink Driving to be carried out in Vietnam through 2012 as part of Global Actions on Harmful Drinking
Global Actions on Harmful Drinking is the result of a collective commitment made by the chief executives of major international beverage alcohol producers to make a significant effort to address harmful drinking in the 2010-2012 time frame. Global Actions efforts in 18 low- and middle-income countries are currently addressing three critical areas: Drink Driving, Self-Regulation of Advertising and Marketing, and Noncommercial Alcohol. ICAP is the lead coordinating organization for this series of
initiatives. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/29/10) icap.org, 11.23.10 Comment: ICAP, the institute of Big Alcohol, gets in contact with governments of developing countries. It’s aim is not to reduce alcohol consumption but to avoid that governments introduce effective measures. At least governments are aware that there is an alcohol problem. Will there be a honest evaluation of results?

Immer weniger Alkohol dafür immer mehr Zucker haben die Konsumentenschützer der Arbeiterkammer beim alljährlichen Punsch- und Glühweintest in den heißen Kalorienbomben gefunden.
Bei einer Frau mit 55 Kilogramm Körpergewicht reicht bei einem so starken Punsch bereits ein Häferl um 0,5 Promille zu erreichen.
20 Punsch- und Glühweingetränke auf den Linzer Weihnachtsmärkten auf dem Linzer Hauptplatz und im Volksgarten haben die Tester der Arbeiterkammer unter die Lupe genommen. … (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 30.11.10) ooe.orf.at, 30.11.10

Während die Polizei ihre Forderung für ein Alkoholverbot in Hannover untermauert, hält die Stadt dagegen: Sprecherin Konstanze Kalmus fehlt der Hinweis, dass „ an bestimmten Orten der Konsum von Alkohol zu Straftaten führt“ – doch den kann die Polizei offenbar mühelos erbringen. (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 30.11.10) haz.de, 30.11.10 Kommentar: Die Online-Kommentare sprechen für sich.

Three federal agencies — including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — recently acted in concert to halt the sale and distribution of caffeinated alcoholic drinks such as Four Loko and Joose. Agency officials made their decisions based on research into the effects of combining caffeine and alcohol, and several recent incidents linked to the beverages where individuals (mostly young people) have been hospitalized or killed.
In response, David L. Rosenbloom, who directs Join Together, published an editorial in The New York Times arguing that caffeine isn’t the only problem with sweetened high-alcohol drinks. Rosenbloom pointed out three looming concerns: … (Source: Join Together, 11/30/10)

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) manages the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) scheme. This is a
computerised health information system designed to collect clinical and administrative data on discharges from over 60
acute hospitals in Ireland. This article reports on an analysis of HIPE data on discharges, including deaths in hospital, of cases with an alcohol-related diagnosis in the years 2005–2008, in order to assess the burden of alcohol-related morbidity on Irish hospitals. It is important to note that, because the HIPE scheme does not record attendances at emergency departments, using HIPE data to assess the impact of alcohol use on acute hospital services can lead to an under-estimation of the true extent of the burden. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/30/10) drugsandalcohol.ie / Drugnet automn 2010