[Focus] Moment of clarity in Europe's alcohol problem
HELENA SPONGENBERG
06.06.2006 @ 10:02 CET
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - Europeans are the heaviest drinkers in the world, consuming two-and-a-half times the average seen on the rest of the globe, according to a landmark report sponsored by the European Commission.
The survey by the London-based Institute of Alcohol Studies maps EU alcohol consumption and the scale of related social and economic costs in a study that is not for the faint-hearted.
It blames alcohol for 7.4 percent of health problems and early deaths across the EU, making it the third worst public health hazard after smoking and high blood pressure and more dangerous than obesity, high cholesterol or illegal drugs.
Alcohol abuse causes some 60 types of diseases, the study says, including liver damage, stomach ulcers and mental health problems.
The paper - the most far-reaching study of alcohol in Europe so far - will form the basis of Brussels' new alcohol strategy expected to be launched later this year, with the EU planning to harmonise laws on sales and alcohol consumption across the bloc.
The report states that alcohol cost EU member states a total of 125 billion in 2003 or 650 per household in early deaths, healthcare, crime, lost productivity and traffic accidents.
The Irish spend a bigger chunk of their income on alcohol than any other EU citizens, with 1,675 per year per household poured down the gullet compared to 531 in Denmark - the next worst offender - and some 167 in Greece.
Member states' taxation levels help create the divergence in spending however, with Ireland facing one of the highest taxes on alcohol in the EU.
Binge drinking
The Irish also top the list of binge drinking, sharing first place with the Finns, while the UK comes second - binge drinking figures were only available for the old EU15.
Finnish and Irish adults go binge drinking on average 32 times a year followed by the UK with 28 times. The Swedes and the Italians only go ten and eight times, respectively.
Binge drinking is defined by the British Medical Association as consuming more than half the government's weekly-recommended number of units of alcohol in one session. The weekly recommended units are normally ten for men and seven for women.
Irish 15-16 year-olds also top the table of people who binge three or more times a month on 32 percent. The Netherlands came second in teenage binge terms with 28 percent, closely followed by the UK with 27 percent.
Adult drinkers in the UK and Ireland are less likely to consume alcohol with meals than their continental neighbours, with only a quarter in the UK and just 3 percent in Ireland say they drink "only or mainly when eating" compared to 50 percent of Italians.
In France where older children are sometimes introduced to alcohol by giving them watered-down wine with meals, only nine percent of adolescents were classified as binge drinkers.
The most popular type of alcohol in the EU is beer, followed by wine and finally spirits. The report also noted that in every culture ever studied in history, men are more likely to drink than women.
It is estimated that there are around 23 million alcoholics in the EU 5 percent of all men and 1 percent of all women.
Alcohol is annually responsible for 115,000 deaths among persons under the age of 70 in the EU and is also the highest cause of deaths among young men.
Booze damages innocent children
But booze also impacts non-drinkers, with 60,000 children a year born underweight in the EU due to pregnant drinking mother and with 5 million to 9 million children suffering due to drink-related family problems.
About 10,000 innocent bystanders and passengers are killed in drink-driving incidents each year with alcohol also a factor in 2,000 murder cases a year in the EU bloc.
The report's authors have called on the EU to establish a European Alcohol Monitoring Centre and alcohol surveillance programmes across Europe.
The London-based institute also recommends maximum EU-wide blood alcohol concentration limit of 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood for drivers. A lower limit of 20 milligrams should apply to younger drivers as well as drivers of public service and heavy goods vehicles.
The study suggests giving police more authority to use breathalysers and making alcohol-based drinks carry the same kind of government health warnings seen on cigarette packets today.
Taxation of alcohol is also singled out as an effective tool for controlling the problem, with voluntary industry efforts and government education schemes impotent on their own.
"If alcohol taxes were used to raise the price of alcohol in the EU by 10 percent, over 9,000 deaths would be prevented in the following year," the report says.
The alcohol tradition
Alcohol has been produced and consumed in Europe since at least 6,000 BC - prior even to writing - and usually being made from whatever was locally available.
Alcoholic drinks were a favoured option over water because of historic bad hygiene levels in the general water supply. Spirits were also widely used in medicine until the pharmacological revolution of the early twentieth century.
Beer and wine largely remained a home-making activity but by 700-800 years ago beer-making gradually left homes and became an artisan trade with pubs and monasteries brewing their own beer or wine for mass consumption.
As the brewing and distillation processes became more sophisticated, alcoholic drinks also became much stronger than ever before with, for example, brandy becoming popular in the 14th century.
Most of Europe's previous alcohol laws have focused on public order issues rather than health, the London-based Institute of Alcohol Studies study points out.