Week #26 Global Alcohol Policy Round-Up
WORLDWIDE WEEKLY ALCOHOL POLICY, SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome to another week of carefully curated alcohol policy news, latest science updates, exposing Big Alcohol, and a new blog post from our global voices.
Content
For week 26, our Global Alcohol Policy Round-Up contains:
- Alcohol policy updates come from Zimbabwe, the UK, the United States, Ireland and Northern Europe and cover road safety issues, economic harm, alcohol and cancer, minimum unit pricing and alcohol taxation issues.
- Fresh science updates explores alcohol’s effects on agency, a content analysis of alcohol being depicted TV, and the role of students’ assumptions about their peers’ alcohol use for their own alcohol consumption.
- Our Big Alcohol monitor exposes alcohol industry lobbying for massive deregulation in the United States, a troubled partnership of DryJuly with Big Alcohol and Major League Soccer opening the floodgates for alcohol promotions.
- From our Global Voices Blog Portal, Viktor makes the case for why we need a new public health agenda.
Ireland To Move Quickly on MUP
The Irish Minister of Health announced Ireland will move quickly to implement alcohol minimum unit pricing, following encouraging first data from Scotland.
The Irish government has been motivated by positive results from Scotland since MUP was implemented a year ago. They will soon implement the MUP measure already contained in an alcohol control law passed by the Dáil and Seanad.
UK: Staggering Costs of Alcohol at Workplace
A new report by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) reports, in the UK, as many as 89,000 people may be turning up to work hungover or under the influence of alcohol every day. The cost to the economy is up to £1.4 billion.
Based on average labour costs, and how frequently people are impaired at work, this implies a cost to the UK economy of between £1.2 billion and £1.4 billion a year due to being impaired from alcohol at work.
According to the findings, the UK government may be underestimating the cost of alcohol to the British economy by almost 20%. The government’s official analysis excludes the impact of working intoxicated or hungover due to a lack of robust data on the issue.
North-East Europe: Escalating Struggle Over Alcohol Taxation
The northeastern part of the European Union is struggling with a race to the bottom since the alcohol tax cuts announced by Estonia.
In a bid to compete with the Estonians, Latvia will also be cutting taxes. Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins stated they had intended to increase alcohol prices but, will now have to reduce taxes due to Estonia’s move.
Latvia will be slashing taxes for hard liquor by 15% from July 2019.
An upgrade of alcohol tax revenue in Finland was decided in the governmental talks in June as the political parties could not agree on an increase in corporate taxation.
However, Finland is now considering reacting to the Baltic countries’ alcohol tax reductions.
North-East Europe: Escalating Struggle Over Alcohol Taxation
USA: Public Health Groups Request Cancer Warning On Alcohol
Public health groups in the United States have joined together to call for warning statements to be put on alcoholic beverages to increase consumer awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer.
Zimbabwe: Alcohol Causes 1000 Traffic Deaths Annually
Zimbabwean Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo recently said at least 1000 people die annually and 3000 get injured from alcohol-related traffic accidents.
Speaking during a function to raise awareness against alcohol and other drug problems, Minister Moyo said the most affected by alcohol harm were youth. He added that young people start to use alcohol as young as 12 – 13 years.
Effect of Alcohol on the Sense of Agency in Healthy Humans
Research article
A Content Analysis of Tobacco and Alcohol Audio-Visual Content in a Sample of UK Reality TV Programmes
Research article
College Students Overestimate Peers’ Alcohol Use
College students tend to overestimate how much alcohol their peers may be consuming and, in return, use more alcohol themselves, according to new research.
Australia: DryJuly Collaborates With Big Alcohol
The DryJuly collaboration with Big Alcohol is drawing an outcry by public health experts.
USA: Major League Soccer Opens Floodgates for Alcohol Promotion
Major League Soccer has drastically changed their commercial sponsorship guidelines opening floodgates for alcohol promotion. The move would allow 24 clubs to secure jersey and stadium naming rights for sponsorships from Big Alcohol and sports betting companies.
The news comes not even a month after the NFL changed their advertising policies allowing Big Alcohol to use active players in beer ads for the first time.
USA: Major League Soccer Opens Floodgates for Alcohol Promotion
USA: Alcohol Policy Changes Favor Big Alcohol, Not Public Health, Safety
Sweeping the country are changes to alcohol laws on all levels that favor the profit interest of the alcohol industry and disregard adverse effects of easily available, cheap alcohol that is widely promoted without any public health considerations.
Alcohol harm is pervasive in the United States and is fueling the decline of life-expectancydocumented in the last two years. However, alcohol industry lobbying power is also pervasive and so alcohol policy measures are being watered down, weakened and disbanded all-together leading to an increase in alcohol availability across the country.
The Corporate Consumption Complex And The Need For A New Public Health Agenda – 2nd Part
By Viktor Watz
The dominating infantilist ethos and hyper-consumption are making people and planet sick, as we struggle to find meaning, live sustainably and experience happiness in and through ourselves.The second part of Viktor’s block buster blog post about the corporate consumption complex and the need for a new public health agenda is exploring how corporate myths fueling hyper-consumption and people’s alienation from themselves and their communities can be busted and counter-acted. And Viktor looks at how more happiness, sustainability and meaning can be restored in our lives, communities and societies…
The Corporate Consumption Complex And The Need For A New Public Health Agenda – 2nd Part