GAPA Board meets in Sweden

The EU conference on Alcohol and Health and the WHO meeting that followed provided the opportunity for the members of the GAPA Board to meet. Members present were Derek Rutherford, Chairperson UK; Dr Sally Casswell, Chair of Professional Committee New Zealand; Øystein Bakke, Secretary, Norway; Dr Michel Craplet, France; Dr David Jernigan, USA; Sven Olov Carlsson, Sweden; George Hacker, USA; Dr S. Arulrhaj, India; Professor Udomsil, Thailand; Dr Ronaldo Laranjeira, Brazil and Dr Isidore Obot, Nigéria.

The following observers attended during parts of the meeting Thaksaphon Tamarangsi, Thailand; Nathalie Rodriguez McCullough and Jan Peloza, European Alcohol Policy Youth Network and Florian Stigler, International Federation of Medical Students.

Board members made brief situation reports on their regions. Of note was a new law in Brazil on drink driving lowering BAC levels from 0.6 to 0.0 (in practise 0.2). This has led to a decrease in drink driving accidents and the prevalence of drinking and driving. A shortening of licensing hours in the city of Diadema led to a significant decrease in homicides in the city. An East African Alcohol Policy Alliance had been launched, with Rogers Kasirye of Uganda as the head. The CRISA conference in Nigeria last year led to an Alcohol Prevention Youth Network being established. In Thailand a campaign collected 4 million signatures that helped in passing the new alcohol control law.

WHO Strategy: General approval was given to the draft strategy. The mobilization, involvement and engagement of civil society will be critical to its implementation. Well-resourced countries should be encouraged to indicate how they would contribute resources for the implementation of the strategy.