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