www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Denmark’s health minister has called for free sterilisation for female alcoholics and drug addicts to help prevent birth defects in children. Bertel Haarder is proposing that the DKK 13,000 (EUR 1,744) fee for surgical sterilisation should be waived for certain vulnerable groups.
Haarder claims that drug addicts and alcoholics run a significantly higher risk of giving birth to deformed babies, which would cost society more in the long run than the sterilisation fee. “We’re talking about relatively few women here, so I hope we can find the means to help them,” he said.
Socialist People’s Party spokesperson, Ozlem Cekic, also said it is contradictory that costly abortions are free to addicts on the public health service but sterilisation is not. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/28/11) icenews.is, 02/25/11 Comment: At the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century the idea of sterilisation was in discussion. The Swiss psychiatrist and leading international specialist on alcoholism, Prof. August Forel (1848-1931), wrote on this subject: Eugenik. In the 1980th there was criticism about this comparing with Nazi-ideology.

Alcohol must be made less accessible and more expensive to minimize public health damage, according to Norwegian MP and former Minister of Health Dagfinn Høybråten, speaking at the Second Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum in Tromsø on February 22nd. The Nordic countries set the agenda in the global fight against alcoholism, he claims.
Alcohol is the second biggest life style related killer in the developed world and we need to change that, Mr. Høybråten said.
– Higher prices and less access to alcohol has been proven to minimize alcohol consumption. Campaigns and education cannot do it alone. Upwards of 600.000 Europeans die annually from alcohol related causes. And nine million children are affected by alcoholism. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/28/11) norden.org, 02/23/11

We know alcoholism runs in families — children with alcoholic parents have quadruple the risk of developing a drinking problem later in life than those without — but is the link genetic or the result of other influences?
According to a Feb. 8 Wall Street Journal article outlining the evidence for „alcoholism genes,“ it is probably both. Researchers from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, a 22-year National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) investigation into the relationship between DNA and alcoholism, have put together compelling evidence from family studies indicating the problem has roots in nature versus nurture. … (Source: Join Together, 02/28/11)

As per the findings of the Victorian Alcohol Statistics Report, the number of alcohol-related violence and brawls has experienced a sharp rise over the period between 1999 and 2007. …
Now with the released results of the much-awaited report, experts are in quest to find the magic bullets to curb the menace of alcoholism.
Mary Wooldridge, the Minister for the State Mental Health and Community Services, asserted: „This is the most comprehensive, detailed analysis of the impact of alcohol across the state, it’s critical for developing solutions“. … Expressing his unrest and disbelief over figures, the Director for Turning Point, Professor Dan Lubman said that the report is the wake-up call for authorities as well as the people to realize what havoc the alcohol is playing. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/28/11) topnews.net.nz, 02/28/11

… has been released by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). See press release here.
NICE ‚Alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use‘ clinical guidelines.
The clinical guidance (CG 115) offers evidence-based advice on the diagnosis, assessment and management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence in adults and in young people:
Alcohol use disorders: diagnosis, assessment and management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence pdf] NCIE See here for the full 654 page document.
A 24 page quick reference guide is also available summarising the recommendations made. (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 02/24/11)

Having a drink or two a day actually does in fact decrease the risk of heart disease compared to those committed to a life of sobriety a new study shows. Persons who drink are 14 to 25% less likely to develop cardiovascular conditions compared to those who drink no alcohol at all. Of course a balance needs to be found between the public health message that consuming large amounts of alcohol is bad for you, and the one that drinking in moderation can have health benefits. Up to one drink a day for women, and one to two drinks a day for men should be the „norm“ in most cases.
However the studies point out that alcoholism is a disabling addictive disorder. It is characterized by compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcohol despite its negative effects on the drinker’s health, relationships, and social standing. (Source: Medical News Today, 02/23/11) our Online-Comment: For some years resveratrol has been the stuff which brings the positive effects of alcoholic drinks. Now it is alcohol in general. Did the alcohol industry succeed to have all alcoholic beverages united in the successful meta analysis? The high number of included studies remembers me the meta analysis by Kaye Fillmore who showed that most of the studies were not correct. Other studies showed other faults. It’s amazing how this Dr. Ghali propagates alcohol.
It is clear the industry needs a counterbalance to the efforts made by the WHO.

Food and alcohol firms are obliged to maximise profit. To include them in health policy planning is a recipe for disaster.
by Anna Gilmore and Jeff Collin
Alarm bells rang in the public health community when Andrew Lansley announced last summer that leading food and alcohol companies were being invited to join a „partnership“ with government to help address the obesity and alcohol epidemics. As further details of the Public Health Responsibility Deal for alcohol emerge, much through investigative work by the Guardian, the bells ring ever louder.
The Public Health Responsibility Deal, part of the government’s „big society“ idea, is just one of several such deals. For alcohol and obesity, it brings together large numbers of food and alcohol company representatives with far fewer government and public health representatives in a series of „networks“ charged with encouraging and enabling consumers to adopt better diets and drink sensibly. However, full details of their function or how they relate to broader public health policies have yet to emerge. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/22/11) guardian.co.uk, 21 February 2011 our Comment: This is a very competent article. But most of the readers are not informed enough to understand and accept it. Education is needed. Not in order to reduce alcohol harm but to understand the problem and which control measures are necessary to reduce consumption and alcohol related harm. We are all passiv-drinkers. We suffer from reduced quality of life and we pay without beeing asked to, our whole life for immense alcohol related social costs. This is a big loss of freedom.

The 2011 edition of the Global status report on alcohol and health confirms that alcohol is a major threat to global public health and welfare. Drinking alcohol kills more people than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or violence. The new edition of the report was released in Geneva last Friday. This third edition of the Global status report on alcohol and health is yet another milestone in WHO’s efforts to document alcohol consumption, related harm and policy responses worldwide. The report is essential for all who work in alcohol prevention, nationally and internationally, and for governments and NGOs alike.
The report contains, among other things, the following:
* Latest figures on alcohol and health from the Global Burden of Disease material;
* Global trends in alcohol consumption, both recorded and unrecorded beverages;
* Consumption data for all countries of the world;
* Overview of recommended policies and interventions and how interventions have been applied in WHO members states;
* Country profiles for more than 100 countries.
(Source: WHO News release)

Authors: Jürgen Rehm, Emanuele Scafato
Aims: Alcohol is a major risk factor for burden of disease and injury in Europe, and contributes markedly to between region differences in life expectancy. Monitoring and surveillance systems have shown to be a key factor in implementing effective policies. The aim of this paper is to propose a system of indicators for alcohol consumption and attributable harm which can be used as an over-time monitoring tool at the country level as well as for comparisons between countries. …
Conclusions: National and European Union-wide monitoring systems for alcohol exposure and attributable harm to inform public health-related policy decisions could be implemented easily. The establishement of such monitoring systems would follow the recent World Assembly resolution for a global strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/20/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 02/16/11

…but momentum must last.
From Norway to Turkey have Active members worked for raising awareness about the problems that children and young people have to grow up in families with alcohol addicted parents.
“We’ve been on the streets, have established co operations, been in contact with both politicians and the media and we’ve occupied the cyberspace,” says Andrea Lavesson, President of Active – sobriety, friendship and peace, and continues: “We need this momentum that Active and many, many other organizations created all over Europe to continue and grow because one week is not enough to bring about change. 9 Million children in the EU alone long for change and we need NGOs, authorities and the media and their long-term commitment to make that happen.” … Source: Active press release, 02/18/11)