www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Zum 28. Mal nun schon haben Augsburger Brauerei Riegele und Königstreue Augsburg ihren Bierorden gestiftet. Der Bierorden wird jährlich an denjenigen verliehen, der sich um das bayerische Bier und Brauchtum besonders verdient macht. Diesmal wurde Wies’n Wirt Sepp Krätz bedacht. … Auch eine weibliche Ehemalige Bierorden-Trägerin wird erwartet. Es ist die Franziskanerin und Braumeisterin Schwester Doris aus Mallersdorf.
Den Bierorden wird der letztjährige Preisträger Wilhelm Imkamp seinem Nachfolger übergeben. Imkamp ist Theologe und der Wallfahrts-Direktor von Maria Vesperbild. Seine Titel sind der Anzahl viele. Er ist Prälat und darf sich „Monsignore“ nennen. (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 19.4.11) b4bschwaben.de, 19.4.11 Kommentar: Wurde jemals untersucht, wie oft Alkohol bei den sexuellen Übergriffen in der katholischen Kirche eine Rolle spielte? Ich habe nie etwas darüber gelesen.

Sie saufen und raufen: Alkohol ist die Hauptursache für den enormen Anstieg an Straftaten vor und in Münchner Diskotheken
Die gute Nachricht vorweg: München bleibt die sicherste Millionenstadt Europas! Doch angesichts des teils enormen Anstiegs der Straftaten in Diskotheken forderte Polizeipräsident Wilhelm Schmidbauer gestern ein Verkaufs-Verbot von harten Alkoholika zwischen Mitternacht und Morgengrauen.
Die bekannten Münchner Brennpunkte am Maximiliansplatz, am Optimolgelände sowie an der Münchner Freiheit – sie trüben die Kriminalitätsstatistik 2010. Bei den 3987 Gewaltdelikten handelt es sich in vier von fünf Fällen um Körperverletzungen. Alarmierend: Die Ursache Alkohol nahm in den vergangenen zehn Jahren um satte 54 Prozent zu! „Darüber sollten wir uns ernsthaft Gedanken machen, wenn man schon an der Aufhebung der Sperrstunde festhalten will“, monierte Schmidbauer. (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 17.4.11) bild.de, 17.4.11

The European Transport Safety Council has published its 13th Drink Driving Monitor. The document brings news from across the EU on steps to further improve drink driving legislation and enforcement.
Updates on Cross-Border Enforcement Directive and the decision of the UK to delay its opt-in are presented, together with the Draft Report on Road Safety proposed by MEP Koch and the latest on TISPOL alcohol and drug campaign. An interview with Desiree Schaap, Ministry of Transport in the Netherlands, on the Dutch Alcolock Programme and the ETSC alcolock legislation barometer are also featured. To read more, please click here. (Source: Eurocare Newsletter March-April 2011)

The Swedish government proposed a new strategy to fight the use of alcohol, drugs, steroids and tobaco. The plan will result in yearly action plans and evaluations. The parliament agreed fully to the proposal but added a suggestion to ban alcohol use immediately after accidents. (Source: Eurocare Newsletter March-April 2011)

In February 2011 the Dutch Directorate for Media ruled that the STER (Stichting Ether Reklame), the organisation responsible for providing the commercials to public channels in the Netherlands, had violated the new Dutch Media Law. The STER received a fine of 35.000 euro for broadcasting TV alcohol commercials for Heineken and Bavaria beer before 9 p.m. in 2010. The complaints were filed by the Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy (STAP).
Since the 1st of January 2010 a legal watershed ban on alcohol advertising came into force in The Netherlands. Between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. alcohol commercials are not allowed to be broadcasted on radio and television. Sponsoring of programs by alcohol advertisers is still allowed. … (Source: Eurocare Newsletter March-April 2011)

The WHO has launched a consultation aiming to bring together national focal points from European Member States and other stakeholders to develop a five-year operational plan for implementation of the European Strategy for the Prevention and Control of non-communicable diseases.
The consultation has three main objectives:
• To review the responses to non-communicable diseases (NCD) across the European Region;
• To agree on a practical set of actions that can be taken by Member States, by WHO and by partners to address the NCD epidemic in the five years to 2016;
• To contribute to the development of a European position in advance of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and NCD Control (Moscow, Russian Federation, 27 April 2011). (Source: Eurocare Newsletter March-April 2011)

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)

With: News from Eurocare, News From the EU, News From the WHO, New Research and Publications, Alcohol Industry News,
Upcoming Events and Questions from MEPs. (Source: Eurocare, 04/17/11)

The latest IAS Alcohol Alert is available from the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS). The issue’s headline article attacks the Government’s alcohol policy, emphasising dissatisfaction over the Responsibility Deal, below cost ban and decision to stick with the current drink-drive limit. The Alert also reviews key alcohol policy news and developements over recent months including a slight fall in alcohol-related deaths, licensing act changes, and predicted rises in alcohol-related admissions. Full article index here.

Researchers know that there is a strong link between parental alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and the risk for developing an AUD among their offspring. This study looked at the risk of AUDs in the offspring of a large population-based sample of Danish parents. Findings confirmed that parental AUDs were associated with an increased risk of AUDs among the offspring. … Results showed that parental AUDs were associated with an increased risk of AUDs among the offspring, independent of other significant predictors such as gender, parental social status, and parental psychiatric hospitalization with other diagnoses. … (Source: Medical News Today, 04/17/11)