EditorialThe Global Alcohol Policy Alliance and Alcohol Focus Scotland interviewed a range of international experts to prepare a short film summarising the global concern about alcohol and alcohol-related harms.
If you missed the premiere screening on Day One of The Global Alcohol Policy Conference (#GAPC2015) in Edinburgh, Drink Tank has you covered. Catch up with a snapshot of their insights, or watch the video in full, below.
Each year, alcohol claims the lives of 3.3 million people worldwide. One in four deaths occur before the age of 50.
Rising global alcohol consumption is a growing threat to health and wellbeing in most regions of the world, and developing countries offer the potential for huge growth and profitability for the global alcohol industry.
“These are avoidable deaths, sometimes at the prime of people’s lives”
– Dr Shekhar Saxena, World Health Organization –
“Alcohol is linked to more than 200 types of disease and injury. If you take away the alcohol those diseases will not happen, those deaths could be avoided”
– Dr Jürgen Rehm, University of Toronto, Canada –
“Like in every part of the world really, alcohol is a huge concern in Botswana”
– Oscar Motsumi, Botswana Council of NGO’s –
“Balti countries have been famous as the so called EU3, where alcohol-related injuries have been exceptionally high. One of the reasons of course, is the easy availability of alcohol”
– Lauri Beekmann, Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network –
“We have more than 1.2 million selling points of alcohol, without any controls in Brazil”
– Professor Ronaldo Laranjeira, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil –
“Thai people can easily buy alcohol beverages… Unfortunately alcohol has high profits, and high power… Youth and women are targeted by the alcohol industry”
– Teera Watcharapranee, Stop Drink Network, Thailand –
“The alcohol industry spends more than a billion South African Rands advertising alcohol to South African consumers”
– Savera Kalideen, Soul City, South Africa –
Fortunately, it seems the world is waking up to the problem of increasing alcohol use.
In 2010, the World Health Assembly endorsed the first global strategy on alcohol. Successful implementation of this strategy requires sustained commitment and leadership, overcoming both practical and political challenges. Worldwide, there remains much to be done.
“The future is implementing the Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol quite vigorously in a number of countries. But we cannot do it alone. We need the help of civil societies, governments and researchers to make this a real possibility. We need a whole-of-society approach to tackle this problem” – Dr Shekhar Saxena, World Health Organization.
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