www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Adolescent Offspring Of Women Who Drank Alcohol During First Trimester Of Their Pregnancy Three Times As Likely To Develop Conduct Disorder.
Alcohol use during pregnancy is common and is associated with significant threats to the health and development of exposed offspring. Despite warnings from the Surgeon General to limit alcohol use if pregnant or contemplating pregnancy, a recent survey by the National Birth Defects Prevention Study found that nearly one-third of women drank alcohol at some time during their pregnancy, with one-fourth of the women surveyed having drunk during the first trimester. (Source: Medical News Today, 03/22/11)

The legal drink-drive limit will remain at 80mg per 100ml of blood, the transport secretary Philip Hammond has announced. A Government press release said the focus would instead be on „improving enforcement and education to tackle the drink and drug drivers who put lives at risk.“
However the decision drew criticism after an independent report last year called for the legal limit to be reduced. In the report Sir Peter North proposed a reduced 50mg limit, arguing it would save lives and bring the level in line with most of Europe. … (Source: Alcohol Policies UK, 03/21/11) Comment: If there are not 15% to 20% less alcohol related accidents and deaths during the next year the government must revise its attitude immediately. Or it should resign because it had caused many deaths and injured people by listening to the alcohol industry instead of following the advice of public health specialists.

Trying to keep up with alcohol policy changes in your state or to compare policy changes across multiple states through 2009? The Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) is the resource for you.
Sponsored by The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) at the National Institutes of Health and developed by the The CDM Group, Inc., among others, APIS now includes 34 policy changes across 29 policy areas made in 2009. (Source: Join Together, 03/15/11)

Background:  The “prevention paradox,” a notion that most alcohol-related problems are generated by nonheavy drinkers, has significant relevance to public health policy and prevention efforts. The extent of the paradox has driven debate over the type of balance that should be struck between alcohol policies targeting a select group of high-risk drinkers versus more global approaches that target the population at-large. This paper examines the notion that most alcohol problems among 4 Hispanic national groups in the United States are attributable to moderate drinkers.
Conclusions:  The prevention paradox holds when using volume-based risk groupings and disappears when using a binge-drinking risk grouping. Binge drinkers who drink moderately on an average account for more harms than those who drink heavily across all groups, with exception of Cuban Americans. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/16/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 03/15/11

Denver’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade last Saturday was very good, bringing a lot of families downtown to enjoy a cultural display and good family and community fun. I am a first-generation American and very proud of my Irish roots and their contribution to the educational and medical foundations in the USA….
I am very disappointed that open containers are allowed in the parade. Parades are family events. They should not be used for encouraging drinking and rowdy behavior, especially by the participants in the parade. I realize many spectators use this forum as an excuse to drink alcohol and act like fools, but at least the participants should not be allowed to exhibit such behavior. … ( Source: Google Alcohol News, 03/16/11) blogs.denverpost.com, 03/15/11

Children can make a real difference in their communities. A new manual on rights-based research from Concerned for Working Children (CWC) in Bangalore, India shows how children can be empowered to influence their community and also local alcohol policies. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/14/11) add-recources.org, 03/14/11

The government is waging war on the alarming increase in the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and has warned of stricter legislation – including raising the legal age for alcohol consumption from 18 to 21.
In a hard-hitting statement, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said yesterday that the devastating effects of alcohol abuse had spurred the government to „prioritise this as a matter of urgency“.
„Alcohol and substance abuse is destroying families and the fabric of society. The shocking reality of the situation has strengthened our resolve to tackle the problem head-on,“ Dlamini told The Times. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/12/11) timeslive.co.za, 03/11/11 Comment: Good luck, my beloved South Africa. You have the political power to succeed. But do it without the alcohol industry! Take the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy.

In a stunning display of insensitivity and ignorance, Belvedere Vodka and singer Usher have joined with Product (Red) to launch a special edition bottle and give half its profits to „fight HIV/AIDS in Africa,“ under the misleading tagline “Helps Save Lives.” Promoting and selling booze to fight HIV/AIDS?! There are just so many things wrong with this, we can hardly decide where to start. Let’s consider the facts that are missing from this campaign:
* Product (Red) must have conveniently missed the recent news release that alcohol kills more people annually than AIDS, tuberculosis, or violence – a sobering 4% of all deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Association.
* Alcohol use is a leading factor in the spread of HIV. Alcohol consumption is associated with two major modes of HIV transmission: high-risk sexual behaviors and injection drug use. … (Source: Marin Institute, 03/09/11)

In New York City, a professor of Human Ecology from Rutgers University is taking a giant step from documenting the urban advertising landscape toward changing it. In the process, she hopes to improve the health of neighborhoods impacted by blight such as outdoor alcohol advertising. …
Dr. Naa Oyo Kwate’s research focuses on mapping urban environments and their impact on health. For example, she found that an astonishing twenty-five percent of outdoor advertising in Central Harlem was dedicated to promoting alcohol. Exposure to the alcohol ads increased black women’s chances of being a problem drinker by up to thirteen percent. … (Source: Marin Institute, 03/08/11) our Online-Comment: My compliments to that researcher. Usually scientists don’t care much what happens to their study results. But she feels responsible that there is progress.

Aims The impact of alcohol on those other than the drinker is an under-researched area with important policy implications. This study is a first step in investigating relationships between exposure to heavy drinkers in respondent’s lives with measures of health status and wellbeing.
Design setting and participants A cross-sectional general population survey was carried out among 3068 New Zealand residents aged 12–80 years (response rate 64%) using an in-house computer-assisted telephone interviewing system.
Findings More than one in four of the sample had experienced someone they considered to be a heavy drinker in their environment in the past 12 months.
Conclusions: Cross-sectional data from a general population sample suggest that there is a relationship between exposure to heavy drinkers and reduced personal wellbeing and poorer health status. Exposure to heavy drinkers may have negative impacts for others. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/08/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 03/07/11