Where’s the harm in a drink?

The launch last week (7 June) of a European Commission-sponsored Alcohol and Health Forum was welcomed by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as an important step towards addressing worrying trends.

Eurocare, an umbrella group for 45 NGOs working on alcohol policy, said that it would participate in the forum and hoped that all European alcohol producers and retailers would take part in the forum and commit themselves to evidence-based actions, "thus explicitly recognising their responsibilities towards curbing alcohol-related harm in Europe, in particular among young people". "Eurocare will be able to provide the forum with an evidence-based approach and give the forum the necessary feedback on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to action in this area," said Håkon Riegels, head of Eurocare’s Brussels office.

One of the areas that Eurocare wants to see the forum focus on is women’s alcohol intake during pregnancy and while trying to get pregnant. Eurocare wants better information and communication.

"Awareness-raising needs to be done by non-interested parties, so public health bodies and not industry - though industry can contribute," said Riegels.

He added: "The handling of age-limits needs to be looked at. Many EU countries have rules on this but they are badly enforced. This is where the hospitality sector should play a part." Some EU countries - including the Netherlands - allow 16-year-olds to buy alcohol and, according to Eurocare, this is something that should be stopped given that young people at this age are still developing.

But Riegels said the group was not looking for overly stringent measures on alcohol, such as raising the age limit to 21 years. "It has never been our case to ban or clamp down on alcohol, though some parts of industry have framed it as such," he said.

But there was a need for a European response with almost 200,000 alcohol-related deaths each year in the EU. Member states had signed up to a World Health Organisation charter to tackle the health effects of alcohol, Riegels added.

North European countries have begun to change their drinking habits by taking wine with meals but young people in southern European countries are binge drinking in ways normally associated with their counterparts in the north. From which Riegels concluded that an EU-wide approach was needed.

The most important achievements of the forum would not be proposing policy initiatives but getting commitment from those participating in the forum, such as member states, alcohol producers and retailers and the hospitality sector, to introduce changes. "This is not a forum for policy discussion but a chance to look at what stakeholders can do," said Riegels.

The launch last week (7 June) of a European Commission-sponsored Alcohol and Health Forum was welcomed by some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as an important step towards addressing worrying trends.