www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Aims The impact of alcohol on those other than the drinker is an under-researched area with important policy implications. This study is a first step in investigating relationships between exposure to heavy drinkers in respondent’s lives with measures of health status and wellbeing.
Design setting and participants A cross-sectional general population survey was carried out among 3068 New Zealand residents aged 12–80 years (response rate 64%) using an in-house computer-assisted telephone interviewing system.
Findings More than one in four of the sample had experienced someone they considered to be a heavy drinker in their environment in the past 12 months.
Conclusions: Cross-sectional data from a general population sample suggest that there is a relationship between exposure to heavy drinkers and reduced personal wellbeing and poorer health status. Exposure to heavy drinkers may have negative impacts for others. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/08/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 03/07/11

Alcohol’s role in everything from injury and relationship breakdown to trouble with the police, emerges in a poll of 2,221 people commissioned by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG).
According to the survey, some 11% of people polled have seen a friend or relative’s relationship end as a direct result of heavy drinking. One in five (21%) know someone who has driven while over the legal alcohol limit. And 51% know someone who has been a victim of alcohol-related violence, or has been attacked themselves.
The survey also found that 14% of children are being brought up in a family where at least one adult has a drink problem.
The YouGov poll paints a graphic picture of alcohol’s many negative consequences. The survey found that:… (Source: Eurocare Newsletter January-February 2011)

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)

…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)

– many get alcohol from family or home.
A new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that 5.9 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 14 drank alcohol in the past month and that the vast majority of them (93.4 percent) received their alcohol for free the last time they drank. About 317,000 (44.8 percent) 12 to 14 year olds who drank in the past month received their alcohol for free from their family or at home. This includes 15.7 percent (or an estimated 111,000) who were provided alcohol for free by their parents or guardians. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/17/11)

The paper aims to discuss the thorny issues of industry-funded social marketing campaigns. Can the tobacco industry be trusted to educate our children about the dangers of smoking? Is a brewer the best source of health promotion? The paper argues for transparency and critical appraisal. The paper looks at the issues of tobacco and alcohol in more detail, emphasises the need for caution and suggests guidelines for future practice. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/12/11) emeraldinsight.com

Active and partners launch action week for children of alcohol addicts.
Today, Active – sobriety, friendship and peace and partners from all over Europe join to pool and concentrate resources to bring attention to the situation of children and young people who have to grow-up in families harmed by alcohol abuse.
Approximately 9 Million children in the European Union are affected by their parents’ drinking problems. These children suffer from neglect, feelings of shame and selfblaming for their parents’ addiction and from continuous conflicts at home. Many children and young people have to witness and suffer violence. … (Source: Active/Eurocare Press Release, 02/14/11) Comment: I think this is one of the worst effects of alcohol in our societies. Who cares?

As if boozed up whipped cream in flavors such as chocolate, cherry, and orange wasn’t appealing enough to kids, now in Wisconsin they can just buy a can of it for themselves, at the grocery store, LEGALLY.
Despite containing an alcohol content of 15% (same as in Bailey’s Irish Cream or Bacardi Mojito), Wisconsin state regulators have taken the position that alcohol-infused whipped cream is not subject to the state’s alcohol beverage control laws or alcohol taxes because it is a “food” product and not an alcoholic beverage. (Source: Marin Institute, 02/08/11)