www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The Makati Business Club welcomes the initiative to reform excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products, which would allow the government to optimize its revenue potential and create a strong disincentive for excessive tobacco and alcohol use.

We especially support the restructuring of the excise tax system from a multi-tiered structure to a unitary excise tax structure for tobacco and alcohol. This will effectively improve equity across cigarette and alcohol brands, promote market-based pricing in the industry, and encourage the entry of legitimate competition. It will also demonstrate the country’s commitment to open and fair competition, as well as its respectful compliance to international agreements.

We further push for the elimination of the price classification freeze so the government is free to levy competitive excise tax rates on tobacco and alcohol products. We believe that the current system has eroded the tax base, costing the Philippine government a substantial amount of foregone revenue. To address this loophole, we urge lawmakers to raise the excise tax rates and burden of tobacco and alcohol products, taking inflation into account yearly, to adequately reflect the negative externalities of consuming these goods. ….
(Source: Alcohol Reports, 05/05/12) mbc.com, 05/02/12

Drinking too much alcohol can take a heavy toll, not only on a person’s health but also on his or her family relationships and work or school performance. Alcohol consumption can lead to alcohol dependence and abuse, contribute to a number of diseases and mental and behavioral disorders, and may lead to a range of injuries. In addition, drinkers and their families are subject to social harm, such as family disruption, problems at the workplace (including unemployment), criminal convictions, and financial problems. They also encounter higher health care and related costs. …
(Source: Alcohol Alert Number 83, NIAAA)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requiring 14 major alcoholic beverage producers to provide information about their online marketing. The FTC will use the information for a study that will guide recommendations on how the alcohol industry should regulate itself, both online and offline.

The last time the FTC completed an alcohol marketing study was in 2008, using data from 2005, according to The Kansas City Star. That study found only 1.9 percent of alcohol marketing expenditures went toward Internet efforts.

The marketing landscape has changed dramatically since then, with a much greater emphasis on social media. For example, Bacardi has at least seven Facebook pages, with a total of 1.7 million fans, according to David Jernigan, Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. He notes that Captain Morgan Rum has a video game app for iPhones. Many companies connect with consumers through Twitter. …
(Source: Join Together, 05/3/12)

Today, HEIDI – an internet based wiki that presents reliable and comparable data about health in the EU – has been launched by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health & Consumers. Although Heidi has been set up by the Commission, the content is written by European health experts – who are responsible for their contributions and can directly upload and edit information.

HEIDI stands for Health in Europe: Information and Data Interface. It is a dynamic tool that collects, updates and shares information about health in Europe, for example on health status, health determinants, systems and policies. Keep up-to-date by bookmarking the site!

The abundance of health data and indicators in the HEIDI wiki is constantly being added to and updated. The data can be sorted per year, by country and by region, allowing at-a-glace comparisons across the years and between Member States and regions in the EU. For a selection of health topics, the tool allows for the data to be presented in a variety of graphs – line chart, bar chart, map chart and table chart.

For more information on EU health indicators:
http://ec.europa.eu/health/indicators/policy/index_en.htm

Summary:
Drink responsibly” messages function as one tool in the alcohol industry’s marketing toolbox to promote, grow loyalty to and build credibility for its brands. The “drink responsibly” slogan also serves as a public relations distraction for alcohol corporations fighting evidence-based, effective policies such as increasing alcohol taxes, restricting alcohol advertising, and maintaining state control of alcohol sales. There is no evidence to show that “drink responsibly” messages are an effective strategy for reducing alcohol consumption or related harm. Much like Big Tobacco’s anti-smoking campaigns, alcohol industry facades like “drink responsibly” are counterproductive and could backfire, increasing intent to use the product instead of decreasing alcohol-related harm. …
(Source: Alcohol Justice, 05/01/12)

In Focus
Self-regulation is not an answer
AMMIE Final Report: European alcohol industry fails in protecting young people towards alcohol marketing
News from Eurocare
Actis: Loss of income if the pubs close one hour earlier

News from the European Union Institutions

News from across Europe

News from the World Health Organization

Upcoming events

(Source: Eurocare, 05/03/12)

Around 50 Norwegian municipalities currently have places that sell alcohol to three o’clock at night. If these pubs have to close the sale of alcohol an hour earlier, the income of each club will probably be reduced by around 10 percent, according to a new report from the Norwegian National Institute of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research (SIRUS).

– The main conclusion is that a one-hour reduction in the sales hours will reduce revenue per pint with an average of 9 to 12 percent, said SIRUS researcher Hans Olav Melberg.

– This is an average. Some restaurants and bars will experience a larger drop in sales, while others will experience a smaller effect, said Melberg.

The figures from the research are good news for all those who are working for an reduction of binge drinking and violence, says Sten Magne Berglund, Deputy Secretary General of Actis – a Norwegian Policy Network on alcohol and drugs. …
(Source: Eurocare Newsletter 4/2012)

Contemporary Swedes drink significantly more alcohol and eat more meat since the country joined the European Union in 1995, according to a new report by the Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket).

„With regards to alcoholic drinks and meat, the liberalisation of imports and price developments have contributed to increased consumption,“ the board explained in a statement.

One of the key points of negotiation during Sweden’s EU membership application process concerned the issue of the state-controlled alcohol retail monopoly Systembolaget.

Sweden secured the right to retain the monopoly until 2004 after which time import restrictions were eased for private individuals. The board’s report notes that the easing of import restrictions has led to an increase in consumption. The report shows that the consumption of alcoholic beverages increased by 56 percent from 1995 to 2009, primarily of high-alcohol beer and wine.
(Source: Alcohol Reports, News 18/2012) thelocal.se, 04/28/12

FLASH REPORT FROM THE CHAIR – PLENARY MEETING OF 26 APRIL 2012
The 10th Plenary meeting of the European Alcohol and Health Forum (EAHF) took place on 26 April 2012 in Brussels. The topic of the forum was
responsible marketing.

The session focussed on responsible marketing started with a brief overview of ongoing activities and commitments to action under the Forum. Results from three studies financed from the EU Health Programme were then presented. …
(Source: EU, 04/30/12)

Background: Response rates for surveys of alcohol use are declining for all modes of administration (postal, telephone, face to-face). Low response rates may result in estimates that are biased by selective non-response. We examined non-response bias in the NZ GENACIS survey, a postal survey of a random electoral roll sample, with a response rate of 49.5% (n = 1924). Our aim was to estimate the magnitude of non-response bias in estimating the prevalence of current drinking and heavy episodic (binge) drinking.
Methods: We used the ‘‘continuum of resistance’’ model to guide the investigation. In this model the likelihood of response by sample members is related to the amount of effort required from the researchers to elicit a response. First, the demographic characteristics of respondents and non-respondents were compared. Second, respondents who returned their questionnaire before the first reminder (early), before the second reminder (intermediate) or after the second reminder (late) were compared by demographic characteristics, 12-month prevalence of drinking and prevalence of binge drinking.
Results: Demographic characteristics and prevalence of binge drinking were significantly different between late respondents and early/intermediate respondents, with the demographics of early and intermediate respondents being similar to people who refused to participate while late respondents were similar to all other non-respondents. Assuming non-respondents who did not actively refuse to participate had the same drinking patterns as late respondents, the prevalence of binge drinking amongst current drinkers was underestimated. Adjusting the prevalence of binge drinkers amongst current drinkers using population weights showed that this method of adjustment still resulted in an underestimate of the prevalence.
Conclusions: The findings suggest non-respondents who did not actively refuse to participate are likely to have similar or more extreme drinking behaviours than late respondents, and that surveys of health compromising behaviours such as alcohol use are likely to underestimate the prevalence of these behaviours.

(Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/26/12) Open source