www.alkoholpolitik.ch

A report exploring the potential role of promoting lower strength drinks to address alcohol harms has been produced by the Liverpool John Moores University (JMU) Centre for Public Health.

The rapid literature review identified both opportunities and threats to improved health through the increased availability of lower strength alcohol. The report suggests that if lower strength drinks result in ’substitution‘ for higher strength drinks there can be potential public health benefits. However it also identifies ‚addition‘ as a likely affect, whereby lower strength drinks result in an increased number of situations where alcohol is consumed. The report concludes that encouraging production and consumption of lower alcohol products in a single product category is unlikely to maximise effects on population level harms. …
(Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 07/3/12)

Every year, 1.5 million people in Norway are affected by others‘ alcohol consumption.
In this frame, the government is concerned about the increasing damage of alcohol, the result of the increasing alcohol consumption.

The report presented by the government assumes that 50 000 to 150 000 children living with their parents in Norway are in risk due to alcohol consumption.
(Source: Alcohol Reports, 07/2/12) The Nordic Page Norway, 06/25/12

The European Alcohol Policy Alliance has launched a new website to flag up the risks associated with alcohol consumption and cancer.

Alcohol is a carcinogenic (cancer causing) substance, yet only 1 in 5 people are aware of the risks that alcohol can bring. 10% of the total cancers in males and 3% of the total cancers in females are thought to be associated with alcohol consumption. A range of cancers are linked to alcohol, including liver cancer and prostate cancer. Any alcohol can increase the risk, so there isn’t a „safer“ alcoholic drink to gravitate to. …
(Source: Eurocare, 07/02/12)

State Control of Alcohol: Protecting the Public’s Health

Pennsylvania Republican House Majority Leader Michael Turzai recently gave up the fight to privatize liquor sales in the state, at least for the moment. The battle to privatize Pennsylvania’s 620 state-owned liquor and wine stores, and to allow the sale of alcohol by non-state retailers, has been raging in Pennsylvania for several years. In 2010, then-gubernatorial candidate (now governor) Tom Corbett made alcohol privatization a key part of his election campaign. Since then, advocates for state control and new research findings regarding its effectiveness have helped fight off the ill-fated plan.

When the 21st Amendment repealed national prohibition in 1933, states became responsible for
regulating alcoholic beverages. While many states decided to license private businesses to sell alcohol,
18 states chose to control alcohol sales themselves. The goal was to provide a legal way for people
to obtain alcohol, but also encourage moderate consumption by reducing economic incentives for
maximum sales.

States that currently have monopolies over control either beer, wine, or spirits (or some combination)
are: Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina,
Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. In
addition, Montgomery County, Maryland controls spirits, beer, and wine (the only jurisdiction that
controls all three). …
(Source: Alcohol Justice, 06/27/12)

Abstract
Resveratrol has shown evidence of decreasing cancer incidence, heart disease, metabolic syndrome and neural degeneration in animal studies. However, the effects on longevity are mixed. We aimed to quantify the current knowledge of life extension from resveratrol. We used meta-analytic techniques to assess the effect resveratrol has on survival, using data from 19 published papers, including six species: yeast, nematodes, mice, fruitflies, Mexican fruitflies and turquoise killifish. Overall, our results indicate that resveratrol acts as a life-extending agent. The effect is most potent in yeast and nematodes, with diminished reliability in most higher-order species. Turquoise killifish were especially sensitive to life-extending effects of resveratrol but showed much variation. Much of the considerable heterogeneity in our analysis was owing to unexplained variation between studies. In summary, we can report that few species conclusively show life extension in response to resveratrol. As such, we question the practice of the substance being marketed as a life-extending health supplement for humans.
(Source: rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org, 06/20/12)

In Focus
Launch of Eurocare recommendations for a future EU alcohol strategy
Estonia is developing an alcohol policy green paper

News from Eurocare
Actis (Norway): The Government says no to curbing serving hours
Alcohol and Society (Denmark) challenges Carlsberg over the promotion of alcohol in Denmark
Alcohol Focus Scotland: Scottish policy developments
SLAN (Sweden): Summer updates

News from the European Union Institutions
Presentations from the 10th meeting of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action
EU Health Programme – Annual report 2010
Health-EU Portal survey ….

News from across Europe

New research and reports

Upcoming events
(Source: Eurocare, 06/19/12)

Two types of state laws can help reduce the risk of teens’ drinking and driving, a new study suggests. Graduated driver licensing laws, which help new drivers gain experience in less risky situations, and use-and-lose laws, which allow the suspension of a teen’s driver license if they are caught using alcohol, were both found effective.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis looked at the drinking and driving behaviors of more than 220,000 teens ages 16 and 17, HealthDay reports.

“The key finding of our study was that states with restrictive [graduated driver licensing] laws and use-and-lose laws had less youth who reported driving after drinking any alcohol or riding in a car with a driver who had been drinking alcohol,” study author Patricia Cavazos-Rehg said in a journal news release. “In other words, a student in a state with the strongest [graduated driver licensing] and use-and-lose laws would be approximately half as likely as a student in a state with the weakest laws to drive after drinking.” …
(Source: Join Together, 06/19/12)

ICan_postern Lancashire, Community Alcohol Networks (CANs) have been developed by the Trading Standards Alcohol and Tobacco team, in conjunction with Lancashire Constabulary, to adopt a partnership approach to reduce alcohol-related crime and problems amongst young people.

Lancashire have released a CAN Practitioner Toolkit and a CAN Problem Oriented Partnership report.

The project was established with the aims of reducing young people’s access to alcohol in order to reduce risky drinking and alcohol fuelled anti social behaviour. It also aimed to reduce problems by tackling proxy purchasing through enhanced enforcement activity in identified hotspots. In addition it aimed to raise awareness of alcohol related health and social issues amongst young people, parents and the wider community.

Over 12 weeks the Community Alcohol Networks were claimed to have achieved :

51 per cent reduction in alcohol fuelled anti social behaviour
violent crime has reduced by 22 per cent
criminal damage has seen an 11 per cent reduction ….
(Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 06/18/12)

Consultation on the methods used to estimate alcohol-related hospital admissions for England has been opened by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO).

It was announced that the hospital admissions data would be reviewed when the Public Health Outcomes Framework was released earlier this year, stating ‚the preferred option is for an indicator based on just alcohol-related primary diagnoses, to minimise the risk of perverse consequences from any changes in coding practice so the indicator rewards local areas for good performance.‘

Hospital admissions data was formerly used to monitor ‚National Indicator (NI) 39‘ performance under ‚Local Area Agreements‘ (LAA). However LAAs were scrapped under the Government’s Localism agenda, although areas can still monitor hospital admissions data through the Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE) site and are reviewed in the annual national alcohol statistics.

The Morning Advertiser reported that the trade is concerned that such data influences Government alcohol policies. Kate Nicholls, strategic affairs director at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers said „Too often in the past we have seen alcohol-related statistics over-stated and over-played or used as a public health political football.“

Concerns may reflect alcohol-related admissions figures which now top over a million attributable admissions per year, attracting media headlines. Primary alcohol diagnosis admissions are however less than 200,000 per year. Alcohol-related admissions account for the impact of conditions such as hypertension where alcohol plays a key role in many cases. …

Download the consultation document here [pdf] and response form. NWPHO
(Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 06/13/12)

Comment: The industry isn’t pleased, let’s change the rules.

A new Keystone Research Center report has found that states with more control of the sale and distribution of alcohol have fewer alcohol-related traffic fatalities than states with no such controls. The new analysis showed that with all else equal, a state with control characteristics like Pennsylvania has 58 fewer adult deaths per year from alcohol-related traffic accidents than it would if the state had no control over the distribution of alcohol. The findings reinforce the recent Community Preventive Services Task Force recommendations against the privatization of alcohol sales, and are particularly relevant in Pennsylvania given recent moves to privatize there. Check out Alcohol Justice fact sheets for more info on: – Effectiveness of State Control
– Dangers of Alcohol Sales Privatization
(Source: Alcohol Justice, 6/6/12)