Topic:
Alcohol-specific and Alcohol-related deaths: What does it all mean?
Alcohol is a leading cause of premature and preventable deaths. This film explains the difference between alcohol-specific and alcohol-related deaths, two key measures used to assess alcohol harm. Alcohol-specific deaths refer to fatalities from conditions entirely caused by alcohol, such as alcohol-related liver disease and alcohol poisoning. Alcohol-related deaths include these but also cover deaths […]
February 2025
The Impact of Alcohol on our Healthcare Services: Explained
In England, alcohol is now the leading cause of premature death and ill-health for people aged 15 to 49, and alcohol-related deaths are at the highest number ever recorded. Evidence shows that quality treatment services can save lives and are cost-effective. For every £1 spent on treatment, the return is £3 in savings, rising to […]
February 2025
Alcohol and the Brain: Explained
Alcohol very easily finds its way into the brain, and when there, has a profound effect on many of the brain’s structures and functions. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, meaning it is poisonous to neurons, the main type of brain cell. It causes both short term and long term effects and harm to the brain, although […]
November 2024
Alcohol and Cancer: Explained
In 1988, alcohol was added to the list of Group 1 carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, alongside tobacco, asbestos, radiation, and viral infections such as HIV and HPV. This classification, put simply, means that alcohol causes cancer. Yet public awareness of this remains remarkably low. Drinking alcohol is known to cause […]
August 2024
Alcohol and the Heart: Explained
Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer across the globe, causing 20 million deaths every year. And drinking alcohol directly contributes to cardiovascular disease. Yet for many years, the idea that alcohol, particularly red wine, is good for the heart has inundated our media, policy debates, and been spread by industry misinformation. Over the past decade, […]
April 2024
Alcohol Marketing: Explained
Alcohol marketing is all around us: at our favourite sports matches, on our TV screens, online, at bus stops and on billboards. It affects what we think and how we drink, nudging us to drink more and during more occasions. But how does it reach us, why are current regulatory structures failing to deal with […]
March 2024
The Price of Alcohol: Explained
Reducing the affordability of alcohol is one of the most powerful tools at the UK government’s disposal to tackle alcohol harm. At the same time, capping the price of a pint is a frequent political tool deployed to appeal to the public. So what is the real relationship between cost and consumption, and how does […]
March 2024
Big Alcohol: Explained
Across the world, alcohol consumption and harm are on the rise, and since the pandemic, deaths from alcohol rose to their highest level on record in the UK. Despite an abundance of evidence showing how to reduce alcohol consumption and harm, the alcohol industry has been a major barrier to progress and has slowed or […]
September 2023
Corporate Political Activity of the Alcohol and Gambling Industries – launch webinar
On 21 September 2022 we hosted a launch webinar of our new study, which shows that the alcohol and gambling industries use the same arguments and framings to shape the narrative around the harms caused by their products, and the solutions to those harms. The lead author of the study, Saloni Bhuptani, presented the results […]
September 2022
The COVID Hangover: long-term health impacts of changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic
On 26 July 2022 we published our COVID and alcohol modelling study, which looked at how changes in drinking patterns during the pandemic could impact health harms between 2022 and 2035. We hosted a webinar launch of the study, where the lead authors presented the methodology and results. We were joined by Colin Angus, who […]
July 2022
Alcohol & Human Rights
The Institute of Alcohol Studies presents Seminar Four in its four-part series on alcohol and sustainability. Seminar Four explored workers’ rights for alcohol industry employees in the developing world; industry practices in Africa, including female promotional workers’ rights and their risk of sexual harassment and assault; gender and health inequality; and how human rights litigation […]
March 2022