The WHO/Europe and European Association for the Study of the Liver are launching the European Alcohol Health Alliance in 2025 to address the continent's high alcohol consumption and its devastating health consequences.
The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/ Europe ) and the Europe an Association for the Study of the Liver held a symposium on December 11 to establish the Europe an Alcohol Health Alliance to reduce alcohol-related harms across Europe . Europe has the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the world. Alcohol is the continent’s leading cause of death, accounting for almost 800,000 deaths per year, or 1 in 11 deaths in the region.
Frank Murray, MBBCh, a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Bon Secours Hospital and Beaumont Private Clinic in Dublin, who attended the symposium, spoke about the alliance. The intention is to launch the European Alcohol Health Alliance in 2025. 'We’d like to see evidence-based policies to reduce alcohol harm, which we think would be good for individual citizens and the economy,’ said Murray. Among the alliance’s first priorities, he noted, are changing the pricing and availability of alcohol, implementing restrictions in marketing and advertising, protecting children from alcohol harm, and labeling products with health warnings. ‘It’s interesting that the most dangerous product in the supermarket is sold without any nutrition or content information and without any warnings,’ he said. Although methods for reducing alcohol intake are well known, little action is taken to implement them. The alcohol industry is a major reason for this, she said, because it will ‘do everything to keep its business going.’ One tactic, according to Broers and Murray, is heavy governmental lobbying. The industry’s resources for lobbying and advocating greatly outweigh any counterforce in what Murray described as a ‘bit of a David and Goliath’ situation. ‘The alcohol industry should not have any role in policy making for alcohol, because it has a conflict of interest that clearly gets in the way of giving public health advice,
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION EUROPE HEALTH POLICY ALCOHOL INDUSTRY
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