www.alkoholpolitik.ch

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.

The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has banned the sale in Alabama of canned beer-like drinks that combine caffeine and alcohol. This includes the drink Four Loko, which is popular on some college campuses.
An attorney for the ABC Board, Bob Martin, said Wednesday the ABC Board banned the drinks after they had been declared dangerous by the federal Food and Drug Administration. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/23/11) blog.al.com, 02/23/11

The Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC), part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, is offering national electronic seminars to assist states and local communities in their efforts to enforce drinking age laws, prevent youth drinking, and „significantly reduce harmful consequences associated with alcohol use by underage youth.“
The seminars include audio- and web-conferencing (for those with an internet connection).
The next workshop — called „Alcohol Energy Drinks: They Pack a Killer Punch!“ — will be held Thurs., Feb. 24, from 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm EST.
UDETC invites state and community leaders to participate and find out what others are doing to limit youth access to alcohol and prevent the injuries associated with consumption of alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs).
To register or learn more about UDETC seminars, visit: www.udetc.org/audioconfregistration.asp

It can be easy to get so inundated with reports on alcohol-related harm to people around the globe, that another side of the Big Alcohol behemoth gets overlooked – the vast destruction caused to land, water and air by producing the alcohol products themselves.
Recently, Fox News published an expose on the environmental havoc being wrecked by tequila producers such as Brown-Forman, Fortune Brands, and as many as 146 others. Their „dirty little secret“ is that for every liter of tequila they make, producers dump ten times that amount of liquid waste plus five to six kilograms of solid waste – often illegally. … (Source: Marin Institute, 02/22/11)

In a recent victory in Nebraska, the Lancaster County District Court ruled in favor of the public health by declaring alcopops to be distilled spirits rather than beer for taxation purposes. As spirits, alcopops will be subject to a higher tax rate, which is shown to reduce consumption of these dangerous drinks while also raising much-needed funds for alcohol treatment programs. (Source: Marin Institute, 02/16/11) see also Join Together, 02/24/11

While deficits mount, 6 states haven’t raised beer taxes in 50 years or more.
Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog, launched its Neglected & Outdated Beer Taxes Map today. This new interactive tool helps those who want to raise beer tax rates to balance state budgets or erase deficits.
“Just point your cursor at a state and you can see the your current beer tax rate, the year of your last tax increase, and the loss of revenue from inflation,” said Bruce Lee Livingston, Marin Institute executive director and CEO. “We show the twelve states that have hit the bottom of the barrel in beer tax revenues and are the most overdue for an increase.” (Source: Marin Institute, 02/16/11)

… Than In Other European Countries
The UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand have similar cultures, genetic backgrounds and drinking cultures, and, until the mid-1980s, had similar death rates from liver disease. However, while liver death rates in most of these countries have remained low since then, the UK has seen a doubling of its liver death rate from 4.9 per 100,000 population to 11.4. In a Comment published Online First by The Lancet, three experts, including Royal College of Physicians Past President Ian Gilmore, discuss the thousands of deaths from liver disease that can be avoided if the UK adopts appropriate alcohol policies. (Source: Medical News Today, 02/22/11)

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)

—the evidence base for European intervention. (by 8 authors)
Aims: Reducing alcohol-related harm in young people is a major priority across Europe. Much alcohol use and associated harm in young people occurs in public drinking environments. This review aims to identity environmental factors in drinking establishements that are associated with increased alcohol consumption and associated harm and to understand the extent of study in this area across Europe.
Methods: A systematic literature search identified studies that had explored associations between physical, staffing and social factors in drinking environments and increased alcohol use or alcohol-related harm. …
Conclusions: Drinking establishments, their management and the behaviours of the young people who use them vary widely across Europe. While international research shows that environmental factors in drinking settings can have an important influence on alcohol-related harm, there is currently a scarcity of knowledge on the relevance and impacts of such factors in modern European settings. Developing this knowledge will support the implementation of strategies to create drinking environments in Europe that are less conducive to risky drinking and alcohol-related harm. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/20/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 02/16/11