www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Lansley wants supermarket action on ‚front of store‘ promotions
The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has written to supermarkets to re-iterate requests that supermarkets pledge to remove alcohol promotions from front of stores, reports The Telegraph.
Department of Health (DoH) officials said Ministers were frustrated that more supermarkets had not made further commitments, with only Asda applying discretion to the location of alcohol promotions. In the letter, Lansley called on the supermarkets to „do more“, requesting „all major alcohol retailers‘ full participation in this effort“.
Earlier this year Alcohol Concern realeasd a report calling for separate alcohol aisles in supermarkets. The report claimed abundant alcohol displays were normalising alcohol as an everyday commodity, reducing recognition of it as a potentially harmful drug. (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 5/30/11) alcoholpolicy.net, 5/30/11

Food and alcohol firms are obliged to maximise profit. To include them in health policy planning is a recipe for disaster.
by Anna Gilmore and Jeff Collin
Alarm bells rang in the public health community when Andrew Lansley announced last summer that leading food and alcohol companies were being invited to join a „partnership“ with government to help address the obesity and alcohol epidemics. As further details of the Public Health Responsibility Deal for alcohol emerge, much through investigative work by the Guardian, the bells ring ever louder.
The Public Health Responsibility Deal, part of the government’s „big society“ idea, is just one of several such deals. For alcohol and obesity, it brings together large numbers of food and alcohol company representatives with far fewer government and public health representatives in a series of „networks“ charged with encouraging and enabling consumers to adopt better diets and drink sensibly. However, full details of their function or how they relate to broader public health policies have yet to emerge. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/22/11) guardian.co.uk, 21 February 2011 our Comment: This is a very competent article. But most of the readers are not informed enough to understand and accept it. Education is needed. Not in order to reduce alcohol harm but to understand the problem and which control measures are necessary to reduce consumption and alcohol related harm. We are all passiv-drinkers. We suffer from reduced quality of life and we pay without beeing asked to, our whole life for immense alcohol related social costs. This is a big loss of freedom.

Das britische Gesundheitssystem ist schwer defizitär, und die Regierung aus Konservativen und Liberaldemokraten, die mit einem „Budget Blitz“ die Sanierung der Staatsfinanzen plant, will gerade in diesem Bereich massiv einsparen. Gesundheitsminister Andrew Lansley setzte nun fünf Arbeitsgruppen ein, die neue Regeln für eine effizientere Gesundheitsvorsorge festlegen sollen.
Die Zusammensetzung sorgt allerdings für große Aufregung. Wie die Zeitung „Guardian“ am Samstag berichtete, setzen sich die Gruppen zum Großteil aus Vertretern der Lebensmittelindustrie zusammen, darunter McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, Unilever, Kellogg’s und Pepsi. Mehrere Arbeitsgruppen werden sogar von den Industrievertretern, die als die Hauptverursacher der Probleme gelten, geleitet. Fünf Themengruppen gibt es: Jene, die sich mit dem Thema Alkohol befasst, wird demnach vom Chef des britischen Wein- und Spirituosenverbands geleitet. In der Lebensmittelgruppe, die sich Ernährungsproblemen wie Fettleibigkeit widmet, sitzen zahlreiche Vertreter der Fast-Food-Industrie. … (Quelle: Google Alkohol News, 14.11.10) orf.at, 14.11.10 Kommentar: Hier wird der Bock zum Gärtner gemacht. Die WHO sagte schon vor Jahren, wirksame Alkoholprävention könne nicht mit der Alkoholindustrie gemacht werden. Selbstregulierungen haben bisher kaum Ergebnisse gebracht. Anderseits ist dieses Vorgehen nicht viel schlechter als in andern Ländern, wo die Regierungen unter ständigem Druck der Alkoholindustrie stehen und deshalb auch keine Verbesserungen erzielen wollen oder können. Hier ist der Einfluss offengelegt.

The Government clashed with its medical advisers yesterday over how to tackle Britain’s burgeoning problem of heavy drinking. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) called for the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol to discourage supermarkets from discounting the cheapest products and promoting heavy drinking. It said its recommendations were backed by more than 100 scientific studies.
But Health Secretary Andrew Lansley rejected its analysis and said ministers instead favoured banning supermarkets and off-licences from selling alcohol „below cost price“. Mr Lansley said: „It is not clear that [Nice’s] research examines specifically the regressive effect on low-income families [of a minimum price], or proves conclusively that it is the best way to impact price in order to impact demand.“ (Source: Google Alkohol News) n2day.com, 6/2/10 / bbc.news.co.uk, 6/2/10) with our online-comments. (2)

U.K.: Alcohol Content Labels Will Replace ‚Misunderstood‘ Units System Under Tory Plans.
„Labels detailing the precise alcoholic content of drinks will replace the ‚misunderstood units‘ system under Conservative plans to warn the public about the dangers of excessive consumption. Unveiling the party’s public health agenda, Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, highlighted the importance of ‚harnessing the power of social norms‘ to combat obesity, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and binge drinking. Greater clarity on food and drink labelling would enable people to adopt healthier lifestyles, he maintained, ‚unleashing a new era of individual and social responsibility‘ that would help to change behaviour. Rejecting the swelling chorus of medical experts demanding minimum pricing controls on alcohol to reduce demand, the party promises significant rises in duty on alcopops, high-strength lagers and ciders. It has also announced that it will use legislation to ban supermarkets selling cheap alcohol as a loss-leader to attract customers into their stores — a policy already introduced by Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain.“ (Source: The Guardian, London, Online, January 13, 2010) Comment: A labour government cannot stand against the alcohol industry, why a conservative government could do it better?