www.alkoholpolitik.ch

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

Authors: Peter Anderson, Antoni Gual
Aims: To consider, briefly, science’s role in informing alcohol policy, and how science could help reframe the present governance of alcohol policy. …
Results: Three endeavours are considered important for science’s role in informing alcohol policy: modelling studies that help predict the outcomes of differing policy approaches; studying the impact of live policy changes as a powerful set of natural experiments; and, improved study of the impact of integrated, coordinated and joined up alcohol policies, as opposed to the impact of individual alcohol policy measures. Three areas where science can contribute to strengthened alcohol policy governance include: analysis of different governance architectures that might promote joined-up actions between different sectors; the design of better metrics that measure the impact of public and private sector actions on health; and, by identifying incentives that help consumers make choices on the use of alcohol that improve health.
Conclusions: The impact of science on better alcohol policy governance can only happen if there is more and better dialogue between scientists and those who design alcohol policy. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/20/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 02/16/11 our Comment: The problem is that politicians are under pressure of the alcohol industry and not willing to listen to science.

Authors: Rebecca Gordon, Peter Anderson.
Aims: To describe the extent to which the content of the European Commission’s Communication on alcohol reflects public health-based scientific evidence.
Findings: …
Conclusions: The Communication reflects the science, in that it acknowledges the significance of alcohol as a social and health determinant in Europe. However, it places more emphasis on policy actions with less evidence for effectiveness than on those with strong evidence. It also focuses its efforts more on mapping member state actions and coordinating knowledge exchange than on providing concrete recommendations for action or developing Europe-wide policy measures. This may be a compromise between the rights of Member States to develop national policy and legislation and the obligation of the European Union as a collaborative body to protect health. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the European Union’s roots as a trading block emphasizes collaboration with industry stakeholders and this influences the ability to prioritize health over trade considerations. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/20/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 02/16/11

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has published a free article assessing the nudge approach now popular with US and UK health policy makers. Judging nudging: can nudging improve population health? explores the concept of ’nudge‘ and whether it can make an impact on areas such as alcohol harm and obesity.
It explains nudging as ‚an approach to behaviour change that focuses on altering environmental cues to prompt healthier behaviour‘, rather than relying on the provision of information such as through health campaigns. Citing the popularisation of the term ’nudge‘ in the book (and now blog) of the same title, the article sets out:
Nudge“…nudging could include a wide variety of approaches to altering social or physical environments to make certain behaviours more likely. These might include providing information about what others are doing (“social norm feedback”) … changing the defaults that surround the serving of food and drinks, or altering the layout of buildings to cue physical activity.“ … (Source: The British Medical Journal (BMJ), 02/22/11) Comment: Nudging can only be a very little aspect in alcohol prevention, but still a useful one. As the British Government is not willing to act effectfully, such small items get attention like a straw.

Anyone interested in having a mimosa or blood mary with Sunday brunch before noon can head out to bars and restaurants for the first time this weekend. Mayor Jack Seiler signed an ordinance Friday that loosens longstanding restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales. Under the law, businesses can begin serving alcohol as early as 7 a.m. rather than wait until noon.
The Sunday hours for alcohol sales now are the same as the rest of the week. The later hours are a product of blue laws that historically restricted commerce on Sundays to protect it as a day of worship. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/19/11) weblogs.sun-sentinel.com, 02/18/11

ATLANTA — Senate Republicans decided behind closed doors not to bring up a bill for a roll-call vote on allowing the public to decide if their communities can sell alcohol on Sunday afternoons.
Senate Republican Leader Chip Rogers told reporters gathered outside his office Thursday that the GOP Caucus didn’t have enough support to guarantee passage of Senate Bill 10. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/18/11) chronicle.augusta.com, 02/17/11

Police Find 3 Businesses Selling Alcohol To Minors
Fayetteville police said that during their recent random alcohol compliance checks, three business were found to be non-compliant. On Feb. 16, the Fayetteville Police Department conducted random compliance checks of 18 businesses with alcohol permits in Fayetteville. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/18/11) 4029tv.com

…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)

In 2010 the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. A global network of WHO national counterparts is established to ensure effective collaboration and consultations with Member States on implementing the global strategy.
The WHO Secretariat was hosting the first meeting of this global network with the aim of discussing and elaborating implementation mechanisms and plans for the strategy on 8-11 February 2011 in Geneva.
Specific objectives of the meeting are to:
* inaugurate the global network of WHO national counterparts for implementation of the global
strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol;
* establish the working mechanisms and plans for the global network;
* elaborate priority areas and implementation plans for reducing the harmful use of alcohol at the global level;
* discuss priority areas and plans for implementing the global strategy at the regional level;
* discuss monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the global strategy at different levels;
* launch the Global status report on alcohol and health 2011. (Source: WHO)

The government’s „responsibility“ deal on alcohol looks likely to fall apart as health experts, angered by the limited concessions required of the drinks industry, consider walking away from the table.
The deal, between the industry, the government and health experts – including the chiefs of groups such as Alcohol Concern and the British Liver Trust, as well as senior doctors working on alcohol-related health problems – was billed, when launched last summer, as a fresh, collaborative approach to a serious public health problem. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/17/11) guardian.co.uk, 02/17/11 Comment: This could be foreseen. Some years ago, the World Health Organization declared, that alcohol prevention should be planned without the help of the alcohol industry. The industry only agrees with measures which will not reduce their profits. Such discussions are a waste of time and manpower an give the industry a moral acceptance.