Call time on Britain's damaging drink habits, say Directors of Public Health

Act now to reduce drink-related harm, says Faculty of Public Health and Association of Directors of Public Health Recommendations to UK Government include:

• Tighten regulation on marketing, promotion and pricing of alcohol.

• Ensure clear and consistent labelling of alcohol content.

• Give more consideration of public health issues when processing licensing applications.

A range of measures are needed to get to grips with the UK’s everworsening problem with alcohol misuse, says the Faculty of Public Health and Association of Directors of Public Health. Both are calling for firm action at both national and local level to address the devastating impact of Britain’s drinking habits on the nation’s health and economy in its new Alcohol Position Statement launched at its annual conference in Cardiff.

The Problem

The Doctors say that Britons are drinking twice as much as they did 40 years ago, a period which has seen the death rate from liver cirrhosis more than quadruple. Alcohol is also a significant contributory factor in many other health conditions including coronary heart disease, obesity and depression as well as several cancers. It is also a factor in around half of all domestic violence and violent crime incidents as well as up to 70 per cent of peak time admissions to hospital A&E departments. The financial costs to both the health service and the wider economy are immense and growing all the time.

Evidence from around the world shows that the most effective efforts to tackle alcohol misuse are those that combine measures aimed at the whole population – increasing price, reducing availability and targeting those vulnerable and disadvantaged groups who may be at increased risk.

Therefore the Faculty of Public Health and Association of Directors of Public Health are calling on the government to take decisive action to tighten regulation on the marketing and promotion of alcohol - particularly the enormous discounts offered by supermarket chains, which can often see alcohol sold below cost price – and address the clearly ineffective industry self-regulation around promoting alcohol as a glamorous and exciting product, particularly to the young.

They want to see tax levers used to increase price, the introduction of a clear and consistent labelling policy for alcohol content, better screening for alcohol-related problems and more consideration of public health issues by local licensing authorities, particularly in areas with high levels of alcoholrelated disorder and ill health. They also want to see better education on alcohol issues, both in schools and for the public as a whole, and a reduction of the legal blood alcohol limit to cut the number of drink driving incidents.

‘Every week we seem to be hit with yet another shocking statistic about the damage done by alcohol misuse to individuals and society,’ said Faculty President Professor Alan Maryon Davis. “All of us, especially government, have to stop tiptoeing around this problem and really get to grips with it. We need firm action now.”

“Despite a number of governmental strategies, problems related to alcohol are getting worse, not better,” said ADPH President Dr Tim Crayford. “‘It’s time to turn this tide and help people back to safer levels of drinking.”’