GAPC 2015

“The question – when is there enough evidence for action?” So asks Johns Hopkins University’s Associate Professor David Jernigan in his address to this week’s Global Alcohol Policy Conference in Edinburgh in Scotland.

As Associate Professor Jernigan points out, there are already at least 21 peer-reviewed studies that have found alcohol marketing affects youth drinking.

GAPC 2015 commences in Edinburgh today with a programme packed full of presentations from experts from around the world, like Associate Professor Jernigan, all keen to share their experiences about combating alcohol harm.

Momentum for change: research and advocacy reducing alcohol harm is the fourth conference presented by the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance since the first conference was held in Syracuse, New York in 2000. All conferences have focused on advocacy, the need to overcome vested interests in alcohol policy development and the need for international collaboration.

This year’s conference organiser, the Scottish based Alcohol Focus’, Barbara O’Donnell, wrote in a pre-conference op-ed published in The Scotsman yesterday, the World is waking up to the problem of increasing alcohol use, that in most regions of the world rising alcohol consumption is a growing threat. Asia, Africa and Latin America are being targeted by global alcohol producers bent on profit-making, which is resulting in alcohol-related harm is increasing.

The opening conference keynote address will be given by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose government is leading the fight to introduce minimum unit pricing (MUP) against the staunch opposition of the alcohol industry. Sturgeon has reiterated her government’s determination to see through efforts to introduce the MUP.

The activity of alcohol producers will be a key conference theme. Prominent researchers, Professors Jim McCambridge and Tom Babor will address alcohol industry tactics in the United Kingdom and the ongoing battle between public health and big alcohol.

University of Auckland law Professor Jane Kelsey will be speaking about Mega trade treaties as obstacles to alcohol control policies. This is timely in light of news that a deal has been struck on the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

Central to concerns about the TPP are the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions which potentially infringe countries rights to instigate preventive health measure to protect the public’s health. Kelsey’s research is important in ensuring efforts to protect public health are not frustrated by vested interests with recourse to trade treaty provisions like ISDS.

World-renowned social marketing expert Professor Gerard Hastings is speaking on the need for radical action to tackle alcohol marketing. Ahead of the conference Professor Hastings says he wants Scotland to take a leading role in urging the WHO to introduce a framework which will outline how countries can take action to address alcohol problems by introducing measures around advertising, packaging and the way it is sold.

Conference co-sponsors, the World Health Organization (WHO), are presenting on the implementation of the 2010 Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

There are significant concerns among civil society organisations that national level governments are not doing enough to progress the strategy’s actions.

With increasing international attention on chronic disease, driven by the United Nations/WHO commitment to reduce non-communicable diseases by 25 per cent by 2025, the conference will hear presentations about alcohol and cancer including from Balance North East’s Colin Shevills, the north of England-based advocacy body which responsible for the hard-hitting 2013 alcohol causes cancer advertising campaign.

More than 400 delegates from 55 countries are expected at the Global Alcohol Conference. You can follow the conversation on Twitter at #GAPC2015.

GAPC 2017 will be held in Australia and be jointly hosted by the Public Health Association of Australia, the National Alcohol Policy Alliance and FARE.