Tuesday 25th November 2003

Government in the pocket of the Alcohol Industry
IAS attacks Portman Group influence

The drink industry’s hand is plainly visible in the Interim Analytical Report on the long-awaited national alcohol policy is the view of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, published in the current edition of its journal, Alert.

“…the report contains one particularly glaring omission, any attempt to relate the level of harm to overall consumption of alcohol,” states the leading article. “This is akin to developing a national plan to combat obesity whilst avoiding any consideration of the average intake of calories.”

Alert points out that this key issue divides the scientific community on the one hand from the drink industry and the Government on the other. Striking evidence of this is shown by the disbandment of the special sub-group of advisers set up to assist the Strategy Unit. This group presented evidence on the importance of average consumption for the level of harm but clearly this was inconsistent with the view which the Government and the drink industry wished to promote.

Alert highlights the role of the drink industry’s Portman Group in the formation of the Interim Report. Labelling the submissions made by industry organisations as an “exercise in sustained hypocrisy”, the journal says that the Portman Group’s offering elevates this to an art form.

The Portman Group, which in the past has been caught out offering secret payments to academics to rubbish a major report from WHO, pays lip service to the importance of “the best available evidence” and “sound data”, but Alert points out that “the issues on which the whole debate hinges are conspicuous only by their absence”.

Alert consigns the Portman Group to “pariah status in the scientific community”.

Alert, Issue 3, 2003, is available on the IAS website at www.ias.org.uk