4TH EUROPEAN ALCOHOL POLICY CONFERENCE
Alcohol as a
Global Health Concern
Prevention of alcohol-related harm:
Europe’s responsibilty goes beyond
Europe’s territory
FORUTseminar – 30 april 2009
Alcohol:
A globalized commodity
An industrial epidemic
I hvilke sammenhenger blir rusmidler brukt?
A global concern:
Increasing alcohol consumption
in developing countries
Robin Room et al:
Consumption levels tend to increase as
economic development occurs
“Alcohol in Developing Societies”
”Emerging markets”
Emerging markets:
> Large populations> Young populations> Low alcohol consumption> Economic development> Growing purchasing power > Growing middle classes
Poverty
Gender-based
violence
HIV/AIDS
Alcohol – a development issue:
A dual challenge for Europe:
To reduce alcohol-related harm in Europe
To prevent that the rest of the world experiences similar problems with alcohol
Facts and figures
• Europe is the heaviest drinking region in the world.
• Europe can be considered the centre of the global alcohol industry, acting as both the largest market and the major producer of alcohol drinks. More than 70% of all alcohol exports in the world
coming from European countries.
• Worldwide alcohol use is ranked by WHO as the third leading risk factor cause of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Unintentional injuries alone account for about one third of the 2.5 million deaths, while neuro-psychiatric conditions account for close to 40% of the
69.4 million DALYs.
• The burden is not equally distributed among the countries.
Alcohol as a Global Health Concern
Recommendations • Eurocare fully supports the WHO
Global Strategy and the following 10 recommended target areas:
– Leadership, awareness and commitment
– Health services’ response – Community action – Drink-driving policies and
countermeasures – Availability of alcohol – Marketing of alcoholic
beverages – Pricing policies – Reducing the negative
consequences of drinking and alcohol intoxication
– Reducing the public health impact of illicit alcohol and informally produced alcohol
– Monitoring and surveillance
Eurocare recommends Relevant actor
Europe as a main exporter has a commitment to implement the actions recommended by the WHO Global Strategy.
European InstitutionsMember States
Monitoring and surveillance- Establish effective frameworks for
monitoring and surveillance- Establish institutions responsible
for collecting, collating, analysing and dissemination available data
- Defining and tracking a common set of indicators and of policy responses and interventions
- Developing evaluation mechanisms
European InstitutionsMember States
All Member States should include the prevention of alcohol problems in national strategies for cooperation with developing countries
Member States
Provide WHO with additional funding to secure the implementation of the new Global Strategy
Member States