www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Since the term was coined about 40 years ago, fetal alcohol syndrome has slowly become recognized as a public health issue. Alicestine October reports from South Africa’s Western Cape province, which has the highest reported rate in the world.
“When I was pregnant with my son I drank a lot – mostly on weekends,” says Marion Williams, a 45-year-old mother who lost two of her five children in childbirth.
Williams lives in one of South Africa’s famous wine-growing areas in the Western Cape. She started drinking as a teenager and was taken out of school, she suspects, to work to buy wine for her parents. … (Source: Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2011;89:398–399. doi:10.2471/BLT.11.020611)

Alcohol Concern Cymru have released a briefing paper on alcohol and older people:
Hidden harm? Alcohol and older people in Wales [pdf]
An Alcohol Concern page states:
‚To make sure older people in Wales receive the support they need to enjoy alcohol healthily, Alcohol Concern is recommending that professionals working with older people need to be aware of alcohol misuse; better joint working is needed between local older people’s services and alcohol treatment services; and research is needed into whether current unit guidance and screening methods for alcohol misuse are relevant to older people.‘ (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 06/06/11)

Eighth plenary meeting of the European Alcohol and health Forum, Brussels, 8 April 2011 – Summary report available
Released 06 June 2011
European Alcohol and Health Forum – List of members updated
Released 24 May 2011
8th meeting of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action, Luxembourg, 1-2 March 2011 – Summary report and presentations available
(Source: EU, 06/06/11)

Drinking motives have a prominent role in cognitive models of adolescent and adult alcohol decision-making … The complementary construct of motivation not to drink has received less attention. …
We examined how abstinence motives interacted with drinking motives and alcohol expectancies to predict alcohol consumption in samples of US high school students (N > 2,500).
Nondrinking motives predicted lower rates of lifetime and current alcohol use. Motives not to drink interacted with specific drinking motives, like social and coping motives, and alcohol expectancies to predict certain aspects of drinking behavior. For example, motives not to drink had the greatest impact on youth with weaker social motivations.
Findings highlight the distinction between motives not to drink and other alcohol-related cognitions in predicting adolescent alcohol consumption.
This work not only supports the utility of this construct in developing models of youth alcohol-related decision-making but also has implications for prevention programming. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 06/04/11)

Police officers will be out in force throughout June to detect drink and drug drivers across the country, reports the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). A similar 30 day scheme ran last year in which just under 101,000 people were stopped and tested, with 5.6% testing positive or refusing a test. (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 6/2/11) Also:
Minimum pricing posed to BBC Question Time panel
Trade and industry news
Local Authorities in Scotland could soon be taking measures to ban under 21s from purchasing alcohol from supermarket and off-licenses

Aims: In Brazil, a new law introduced in 2008 has lowered the blood alcohol concentration limit for drivers from 0.06 to 0.02, but the effectiveness in reducing traffic accidents remains uncertain. This study evaluated the effects of this enactment on road traffic fatalities and injuries…
Measurements: Data on injuries and deaths caused by road traffic accidents in both regions were collected from January 2001 to June 2010, comprising a total of 1,417,087 injuries and 51,561 fatalities.
Findings: The new traffic law was responsible for significant reductions in traffic injuries and fatalities rates in both localities (P < 0.05). A stronger effect was observed for traffic fatalities (-7.2 and -16.0% in the average monthly rate in the State and capital, respectively) compared to traffic injuries rates (-1.8 and -2.3% in the State and capital, respectively). Conclusions: Lowering the blood alcohol concentration limit in Brazil had a greater impact on traffic fatalities than injuries, with a higher effect in the capital where presumably the police enforcement was enhanced. Comment: Effectiveness uncertain? But „responsible for significant reductions in traffic injuries and fatalities rates in both localities“. ?