Beer and Pub group slams EU binge drink report
The British Beer and Pub Association has slammed an EU report which claims Britain is in the Premier League of binge-drinking.
The report, compiled by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, will help the EU form its alcohol strategy.
It says Brits binge drink once a fortnight on average and says alcohol is 'public enemy' number three - behind tobacco and high blood pressure.
More worryingly the report opens the door to the theory of passive drinking by quantifying the damage caused to society by "other people's drinking".
It says: "Many people suffer due to someone else's' drinking - including 5-9 million children living in families damaged by alcohol and the 10,000 'innocent' deaths that occur to bystanders or passengers from drink-drivers."
It also claims alcohol costs Europe €125 billion - equivalent to over €650 for every household each year.
Professor Christine Godfrey, of 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."
Among the policies it recommends are higher taxes on alcohol and better education warning of the dangers of excessive drinking.
However, Mark Hasting of the BBPA slammed the report saying its authors have links to the Temperance Movement.
He said: "On the face of it there is no new news here. In fact the authors seem to have overlooked the compelling evidence that both overall alcohol consumption and the amount we drink when we go out is falling.
"Reports like this are great at generating a few shock horror headlines, but don't stand up to analysis. The recommendations are overly simplistic. For example their central recommendation is that the silver 'bullet solution is higher prices and restrictions on sale. Were that true, how do they explain the fact that across Europe, the countries with the highest prices and greatest market restrictions have far higher alcohol problems than those with low prices and relaxed licensing regimes.
"But I suppose when you pay the Temperance Movement to write a report on alcohol, you shouldn't be surprised that these are the conclusions."
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Your CommentsRobert Feal-Martinez via email 01/06/2006"What is more sinister is the content of this report, it seems to be sharing data with another study being secretely compliled by the European Commission which is trying to invent 'passive drinking'. The Industry should develop a strategy to combat this before we end up with another 'smoking ban'. There are already similarities to the agenda from the anit smoking lobby, in the EC report, indeed the lead author Dr Peter Anderson, has his history in the WHO and is a leading figure in Tobacco Free Initiative Europe. This man clearly is anti enjoyment. This comment by Anderson should bring back memories of the 1975 Word Conference on Tobacco health. " the alleged social rather than individual consequences of alcohol will be key to the new campaign" So in other words before this report is even out for consultation the EC are talking campaigns. Lets not allow ourselves to get 'shafted' again."
Martyn Cornell via email 02/06/2006"This report once again pushes the false and statistically erroneous idea that pushing up alcohol prices for everyone through higher taxes cuts problem drinking by the very few. Despite atempts to assert this by anti-alcohol campaigners, a proper analysis of the figures shows this argument is simply not true, and should be refuted at every opportunity before it has a chance to become accepted."
Miss J Hynes via email 05/06/2006"I love beer, well lager anyway. But even I know the damage that alcohol causes to people, the people aroudnm them, their families and friends and as the report states, inniocent bystanders. I've been subjected to drunken abuse and even threatened with physical violence by a drunk. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that too many people can't handle the amount of booze they consume. I'm not in favour of banning it, but I am in favour of changing the way way British people drink. I felt safe in Spain, Germany and France, even Italy, but I don't feel safe on British streets on weekend nights. It's like religion or firearms, it isn't the "thing" it is down to the people that use it however. We live in a culture where getting hammered is an acceptable social event. That has to change."
Tapio Lundell via email 09/06/2006"Report uses statistics in a misleading way.
Extract from report (below) is taken out of context. Writers forgot to tell that total consumption was very small in Finland at that time. In fact there was still dry counties . State monopoly stores were found only in bigger towns. Using percentage figures even small changes can look big : " When Finland changed from selling beer only in government monopoly stores to selling it also in grocery stores in 1968, alcohol consumption rose by 46% in the following year, alcohol problem rates increased "
