Alcohol is responsible for the premature deaths of 115 000 Europeans every year, says a major report that could set the European Union on a collision course with the brewing industry. The report, which is funded by the European Commission and will provide the evidence base for this year’s EU alcohol strategy, shows levels of alcohol related ill health across the continent that are far higher than expected.
It concludes that drinking is responsible for 7.4% of all cases of ill health and early death in the EU as well as being the leading cause of death among young men. In terms of public health this places alcohol consumption ahead of obesity, lack of exercise, and use of illicit drugs as a cause of morbidity and mortality and second only to tobacco and high blood pressure.
The report, which was written with help from the UK based Institute of Alcohol Studies, also documents the alarming number of people who suffer as a result of other people’s drinking—including five to nine million children in families wrecked by alcohol abuse and the 10 000 bystanders or passengers killed by drinking drivers. The United Kingdom was found to be one of the top binge drinking nations in western Europe, with its citizens drinking to excess 28 times a year on average—about once every 13 days. Annual consumption per person in Britain was, however, around the EU average of 15 litres of pure alcohol. The total cost (including absenteeism, premature death, crime and road crashes) to the European economy of was put at €125bn (£86bn; $160bn) a year.
The report’s lead author, Peter Anderson, an expert in public health and an adviser to the EU and World Health Organization, said: “What really makes the need for action so urgent is that we know ‘what works’ in reducing this toll. What we now need is just to get on with it.” The authors are calling for measures to reduce the availability and overall consumption of alcohol—something that the drinks industry has fiercely resisted.
The report says that if taxes on alcohol were used to raise the price of alcohol in the EU by 10%, more than 9000 deaths would be prevented in the following year and approximately €13bn of extra revenues would be gained.
The report also calls for immediate action to:
Set a maximum blood alcohol limit for drivers of 0.5 g/l across the EU;
Decrease the number of outlets selling alcohol and reduce the hours they are open;
Introduce tough new restrictions on advertising.
Already some industry groups have questioned the validity of the report, because of the Institute of Alcohol Studies’ links to the temperance movement.
However, Christine Godfrey, a professor of health economics at the University of York, said: “This is the best estimate yet conducted showing the scale of the social costs of alcohol in Europe. But more importantly the report shows that cost effective polices are available and that predictions of catastrophic job losses for implementing effective policies are much overstated.”
Alcohol in Europe: A Public Health Perspective is available at www.ias.org.uk.