Health organizations rebut the ‘seven key messages of the alcohol industry’

What are described as the seven key messages of the alcohol industry have been directly challenged in a new publication issued by EUCAM, the European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing, on behalf of eleven temperance and alcohol control organisations in Europe and the USA.

The seven messages of the industry, that are illustrated in the leaflet by examples from various countries, are:

• Consuming alcohol is normal, common, healthy and very responsible.

• The damage done by alcohol is caused by a small group of deviants who cannot handle alcohol.

• Normal adult non-drinkers do not, in fact, exist.

• Alcohol is not a harmful and addictive chemical substance.

• Alcohol problems can only be solved when all parties work together.

• Alcohol marketing is not harmful. It is simply intended to assist the consumer in selecting a certain product or brand.

• Education about responsible use is the best method to protect society from alcohol problems.

The intention of the leaflet is to inform health professionals and alcohol control activists about the attempts made by the alcohol industry to influence alcohol policy globally, and to arm them against the industry’s methods to prevent effective policies from being implemented. EUCAM says that for politicians and health experts it is important that they reveal to the public the subversive messaging of the alcohol industry and do not fall prey to the industry’s half-truths - or worse - outright lies. It is essential that experts have the best possible information about the harmful effects of alcohol consumption. The alcohol industry tries to prevent the information about the harmful consequences of consumption from becoming public by purposefully ignoring or denying the important and harmful effects of drinking. The result is that too often a highly glamorized and positive image is conveyed to consumers in many societies.

EUCAM says that the alcohol industry resists legal restrictions on its activities, and that, globally, the industry opposes measures such as the increase of excise-duties, the introduction of minimum prices for alcohol, raising the minimum age for buying alcoholic beverages, restricting the number of outlets, putting warning labels on products and restricting advertising. But, the leaflet says, it is these measures that can achieve a reduction of alcohol use and a decline in harm caused by the use of alcohol. The industry does not object to educational initiatives, because this is mainly ineffective and does not threaten profits but benefits the public image of the industry.

EUCAM accuses governments of failure to take effective action in the face of a major world threat to health. Recently the World Health Organization announced that alcohol use worldwide takes 2.5 million human lives each year. According to the WHO, alcohol is the third biggest risk factor for premature mortality and the loss of healthy life years. In Europe, where alcohol ranks as the second most important risk factor, each year 320,000 young people between the age of 15 and 29 die from alcohol- related causes, resulting in 9% of all deaths in that age group.

The result, EUCAM concludes, is that the influence of the alcohol industry costs lives. The alcohol industry has been effective in preventing the implementation of essential evidence-based policy changes. For example, research from Sheffield University in the UK, on the effect that the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol would have in England and Scotland, indicates that this measure could reduce harmful drinking. Harmful drinkers not only drink a lot of alcohol, they also drink relatively cheap alcohol. Minimum pricing has hardly any effect on the cost to moderate drinkers, but each year a minimum price for alcohol would prevent many deaths, thousands of hospitalizations and many absent days from work. And yet, while minimum pricing is considered a ‘win-win’ measure, the alcohol industry in 2010 successfully aborted the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol in Scotland, through the intensive lobbying of politicians.

The leaflet invites readers to send in examples of objectionable industry lobbying practices.

The organisations supporting the EUCAM initiative are:

Addiction Info Switzerland AV-OG-TIL (Norway) Boozerebellion; Friends of Temperance (Finland) Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen (Germany) Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy –STAP- (The Netherlands) Eurocare Italia (Italy) IOGT-NTO Sweden Landsraadet (Denmark) Marin Institute –San Rafael (USA) State Agency for Prevention of Alcohol-Related Problems (PARPA; Poland) Vereniging voor Alcohol en andere Drugsproblemen (VAD België)