Place: European Parliament – Brussels (Room: tbc)
Date: Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Time: 12h30 – 14h30 (Lunch will be provided)
Drinking alcohol is a deeply ingrained part of the European society; each year, the average intake per adult is equivalent to 1,400 small beers (11 litres of pure alcohol).
The consequences of drinking go far beyond the individual drinker’s health and well-being. They include acts of drunken violence, vandalism, sexual assault, road accidents, harm to the unborn fetus, child abuse, and a huge health burden carried by both the National Health Systems and friends and family who care for those damaged by alcohol.
Each year in Europe, alcohol causes:
- Some 50% of all violent crime to the person
- Some 40% of all domestic violence
- 2,000 homicides (4 in 10 of all murders)
- 10,000 deaths in drink-driving accidents for people other than the drink-driver
- 5 million people born with mental disorders and birth defects because of their mothers’ drinking
- 16% of all child abuse / neglect
- 5-9 million children living in families adversely affected by alcohol
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