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The Portman Group, the industry’s social responsibility body, is to monitor and report on the industry’s progress on the voluntary labelling pledge.
The pledge to provide responsible drinking information on 80 per cent of alcohol labels on UK shelves by 2013 was set out as part of the Government’s controversial Responsibilty Deal earlier this year.
In a press release, the Portman Group said they would monitor and report publicly on the industry’s progress towards the labelling goal. They are contacting all companies who signed up to the pledge asking them to re-affirm their commitments. A database summarising the pledges, companies and brands involved will be published at a later date. … (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 08/22/11) Comment: The Portman Group will like this job as labelling is not much preventive.

Alcoholism suppresses the immune system, resulting in a high risk of serious, and even life-threatening infections. A new study shows that this effect stems largely from alcohol’s toxicity to immune system cells called dendritic cells. These cells play a critical role in immune function, responding to danger signals by searching for unfamiliar antigens within the body that would be coming from invading microbes, and presenting such antigens to T cells, thus activating them to seek and destroy cells containing these antigens. The research is published in the July 2011 issue of the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology. … (Source: Alcohol Reports – News, 08/22/11) infectioncontroltoday.com, 08/9/11

The Missouri Department of Transportation is getting into the smartphone app business with one aimed at stopping drunken driving.
The “Show Me My Buzz” application helps users determine their estimated blood-alcohol concentration, or BAC, by typing in the number of drinks they’ve had, how long they’ve been drinking and their gender.
The app typically recommends using a designated driver but also will help the user find the phone number of a local cab company, if necessary. … (Source: Alcohol Reports – News, 08/22/11) bizjournals.com, 08/19/11

The Philippine government will push a proposal to index taxes on alcohol and tobacco products to inflation that could raise around $1.4 billion in revenues as one of 13 priority bills in Congress this year, President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday. …
For alcohol products, the bill proposes a uniform rate for three years before the tax is indexed to inflation.
However, the revised alcohol tax still provides for a different tariff on products made using local materials — a provision which the WTO says is discriminatory. … (Source: Alcohol Reports – News, 08/22/11) reuters.com, 08/16/11

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has embarked on a novelty cause to help check the carnage on our roads. With effect from October, this year, the union is introducing alcometers at all lorry parks to check alcohol levels of drivers. It has also ordered for some reflectors for acquisition by drivers.
These two initiatives by the drivers‘ union is highly commendable as they are very bold attempts at putting its house in order. The National Chairman of the GPRTU, Alhaji Yaw Manu, disclosed this at the Seventh Upper West Regional Delegates Conference of the union in Wa. … (Source: Alcohol Reports – News, 08/22/11) modernghana.com, 08/22/11

New EU regulations could force the Norwegian government to overturn its current ban on alcohol advertising.
Labour’s (Ap) long hard-fought battle to retain the ban on advertising booze is now hanging by a thread following statements by the EU. Norway will not be exempt from the new European Union TV Directive (AVMSD).
European Commission Vice-President, Neelie Kroes wrote to the government saying it has no choice but to adopt it.
Deputy Foreign Minister Erik Lahnstein said to NRK this was an example of uncommon EU “plainspeaking”.
“The EU says it is consideration for the internal market that weighs heaviest, not Norwegian public health arguments. This puts the government in a difficult situation.” … (Source: Alcohol Reports-News, 08/22/11) theforeigner.no, 08/18/11 our online-comment: The European Union seems to be an economical union only. Not a union for the people. I hope Norway finds a way to resist.

We investigated tobacco companies’ knowledge about concurrent use of tobacco and alcohol, their marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol, and the benefits tobacco companies sought from these marketing activities.
We performed systematic searches on previously secret tobacco industry documents, and we summarized the themes and contexts of relevant search results. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 08/20/11)

Over an average British person’s lifetime, 5,800 pints of beer are consumed, plus 8,700 glasses of wine, 2,900 bottles of cider, 5,808 shots of spirits, 1,452 cocktails, 1,452 glasses of liquor, and 1,452 glasses of champagne – the equivalent of 456 drinks annually. The typical Brit also experiences 726 hangovers over a lifetime. £962 are spent annually on alcohol, or £58,201 ($93,000) by the time they die.
Below are some highlighted statistics from the survey:
The average Brit consumes alcohol at least three nights each week … (Source: Medical News Today, 08/19/11) our online-comment: In this study it is not included, what everybody pays a life time for alcohol-related social costs. We should not forget this.

HEALTH warnings linking alcohol with dire outcomes such as brain damage and cancer have been backed by health groups but described as potentially “alarming“ by an industry-backed group.
The fight over safety labels between the health sector and the multibillion-dollar liquor industry is warming up just as the federal government finally begins formal consultations today on long-awaited warnings, introduced in the United States 22 years ago.
The federally-funded Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation yesterday released its favoured warnings, including: “Drinking alcohol increases your risk of developing cancers“ and “drinking alcohol damages the young developing brain“. .. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 08/18/11)

As we prepare to send kids back to classrooms for another school year, it’s important to equip parents and caregivers with the tools for talking with their children about alcohol. This issue is especially personal for me because my beautiful 15-year-old daughter, Alisa Joy, was killed by an underage drunk driver. While the pain of losing a loved one to drunk driving is devastating, we at Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) are committed to educating families about how to prevent such needless tragedies.
Teen alcohol use kills 6,000 young people each year, more than all other illegal drugs combined. However, research shows that three out of four teens say their parents are the number one influence on their decisions about alcohol. So it makes sense to provide parents with the tools to effectively harness their tremendous influence. … (Source: Join Together, 08/19/11)