JANUARY
January 1
(Russia) Trying to break Russia's vodka dependence
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is hoping for some New Year's resolution among his countrymen, as he takes on one of Russia's most deeply-entrenched and prickliest problems – alcoholism. From 1 January, restrictions on the price of vodka in Russia come into force.
Read more
January 12
(Scotland) Alcohol abuse 'costs every Scot £900 a year'
Alcohol misuse could be costing every adult in Scotland £900 every year, according to a new report. York University economists said the problem may be costing taxpayers between £2.4bn and £4.6bn.
Read more
January 28
(UK) Alcohol-related deaths in Britain rising fast
Alcohol-related deaths in Britain have more than doubled over the past 16 years, official statistics showed Thursday, with those in managerial and professional jobs regularly drinking more than manual workers.
Read more
FEBRUARY
February 1
Booze-related violence on the rise among youths
The number of alcohol-fuelled acts of violence by youths in Germany has seen a stunning increase over the last decade, a new study released on Monday showed.
Read more
February 22
(Israel) Vodka most popular alcoholic drink in Israel
Israelis drank more alcohol in 2009 and drink vodka more than any other alcoholic beverage, according to a survey conducted by the BDI business information company.
Read more
February 22
(Australia) Alcohol industry 'infiltrating' government bodies, policies
THE alcohol industry is infiltrating government bodies and influencing policies, a public health expert says. Public Health Association of Australia president Professor Mike Daube says the industry is as bad as "Big Tobacco" when it comes to pushing their wares.
Read more
February 22
(UK) 'Children, Young People and Alcohol' DCSF report published
The report 'Children, Young People and Alcohol' aims to better understand parents’ and young people’s attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol and alcohol consumption. The research was also designed to investigate how children’s behaviour may be influenced by their parent’s attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol.
Read more
February 25
Anti-booze adverts 'raise alcohol use'Advertising campaigns that warn against alcohol abuse can actually spur increase in drinking among target audiences, claims a new study. The research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Read more
MARCH
March 19
Alcohol worse than drugs in Pacific: report
Alcohol abuse is a bigger problem for Pacific communities than drugs, according to an Australian report, which links drinking to domestic violence and wide-ranging health problems.
Read more
March 23
(Russia) Vodka drinking is top killer of Russians: study
Russia's heavy consumption of cheap, strong alcoholic beverages is the key factor behind the low life expectancy of its citizens, a leading Russian institute said in a study released Tuesday.
Read more
APRIL
April 12
Adolescent drinking adds to risk of breast disease, breast cancer
Girls and young women who drink alcohol increase their risk of benign (noncancerous) breast disease, says a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University. Benign breast disease increases the risk for developing breast cancer.
Read more
April 12
(EU) Alcohol consumption is falling in most big European countries
ACROSS Europe, economies are stagnating and unemployment is climbing. Reason enough, you might think, to hit the bottle. Europeans put away over nine litres of alcohol a year per person, twice the global average. The European Commission has declared that alcohol is a “key public-health and social concern”. Yet in most big EU countries drinking is in decline.
Read more
April 12
Drinking spreads in social networks
Social networks can be powerful, influencing such important health behaviors as gaining weight or quitting smoking, Harvard researchers have reported in a series of studies. Now the same team says that how much alcohol an individual drinks is affected by relatives and friends, a conclusion that has implications for how to help problem drinkers.
Read more
April 12
(UK) Report: Expensive Health Campaigns Fail To Curb Britons’ Excessive Eating, Drinking
A report by independent British health charity the King’s Fund assesses the performance of the government’s National Health Service to guide voters about to cast their ballot on May 6 for the next government.
Read more
April 13
Fetal alcohol disorders common in Eastern Europe adoptees
Many children adopted from Eastern European countries may have been exposed to damaging levels of alcohol in the womb, a new study suggests.
Read more
MAY
May 2
(Denmark) Young Danes dying from alcohol abuse
A new study has confirmed the image of heavy drinking Danes, with reports of 25 youths dying from alcohol abuse since 2002.
Read more
May 3
(Sweden) Sweden Fighting Teenage Alcohol Abuse
The attitude of parents is a vital factor in the fight against alcohol abuse among teenagers Swedish agencies say. The Swedish National Institute of Public Health has joined forces with national police in a year-long campaign against buying alcohol for teenagers.
Read more
May 19
Alcohol Companies Use New Media to Lure Young Drinkers: Report
Alcohol companies are increasingly using the latest new media technologies -- including cell phones, social networking sites, YouTube and other features of the expanding digital universe -- to reach young drinkers, a new report contends.
Read more
May 20
(WHO) WHO to tackle alcohol misuse, binge drinking
Health ministers agreed on Thursday to try to curb binge drinking and other growing forms of excessive alcohol use through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations. The global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol was adopted by consensus at the annual assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Read more
May 23
(WHO) Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO
Harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people annually and is the eighth leading factor for deaths globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. Of the 2.5 million people, 320,000 people are between 15 and 29 years of age, it said.
Read more
JUNE
June 11
(UK) Knighthood for alcohol campaigner
The head of the Royal College of Physicians, who has campaigned for measures to tackle alcohol misuse, has been knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Read more
June 22
(EU) 4th European Alcohol Policy Conference : "From capacity to action"
The Fourth European Alcohol Policy Conference was held on 21 and 22 June 2010 by Eurocare, the European Alcohol Policy Alliance. The aim of the Conference was to gather people from a broad range of sectors to exchange and communicate on alcohol-related issues and policies aiming at effectively preventing and reducing alcohol-related harm.
Read more
June 28
(New Zealand) Six-fold surge in deaths from alcohol
The number of alcohol-related deaths investigated by the Coroner's Office has increased dramatically, mostly due to binge drinking. In the eight years to 2008, the toll rose by more than six times to 254.
Read more
JULY
July 5
(Africa) Global brewers hope to tap a new market: Africa
As economic development and political stability pull more people out of poverty, multinational beer makers are trying to quench their growing thirst for alcohol.
Read more
AUGUST
August 2
(USA) Number of Americans Drinking Alcohol Hits 25-Year High
The number of adults in the U.S. drinking alcohol has hit a 25-year high, the New York Daily News reported Sunday, as the nation continues to experience economic instability.
Read more
August 7
Alcohol: the forgotten drug in HIV/AIDSAlcohol has long been recognised as an important contributor to illness and injury, accounting for 4% of the global burden of disease. 1 Yet alcohol remains conspicuously absent from the larger field of research and programming in HIV and substance use.
Read more
August 14
(Canada) Lawyers call for ‘decriminalization’ of fetal alcohol offendersPeople who suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome and commit criminal offences don’t belong in jail, Canada’s largest lawyers’ organization says.
Read more
August 23
(New Zealand) New Zealand proposes new rules on alcohol salesNew Zealand's government has proposed several changes to alcohol laws in a bid to curb youth drinking.
Read more
August 23
(Australia) Alcohol costs Australia $36 billion/year: reportA new report on the harm caused by alcohol misuse in Australia claims the economic cost amounts to a staggering $36 billion a year. That's more than double previous estimates.
Read more
August 30
Alcohol-related harm, a global issueThe Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the South Pacific Community(SPC) are taking the lead in organizing a historical two days workshop on the 25th and 26th this week at the Quality Inn. The Workshop was first of its kind in the country to develop a Multi-Sect oral National Alcohol Policy for our country Solomon Islands.
Read more
SEPTEMBER
September 1
(Iceland) Alcohol Ad Laws TightenedA bill submitted to parliament may close loopholes that alcohol importers and manufacturers have used in the current Icelandic law banning the advertising of alcoholic beverages.
Read more
September 3
(Kenya) Kenyan market frets over impact of new alcohol lawA new Kenyan alcohol law could open up East African Breweries (EABL.NR) to competition, with micro-brewers springing up to capitalise on the legalisation of traditional liquors, analysts said.
Read more
September 4
(Sweden) Privatizing Retail Alcohol Sales in Sweden Will Escalate Alcohol-Related Violence
Privatizing Sweden's government monopoly on the sale of alcohol, a study published today in the scientific journal Addiction argues, will significantly increase alcohol-related violence and other harms.
Read more
September 23
(Scotland) Minimum alcohol price plans defeated by MSPsMSPs have rejected the Scottish government's proposal to introduce a minimum price for alcohol. The Scottish National Party's (SNP's) flagship policy would have seen a minimum price of 45p per unit of alcohol introduced across Scotland in a bid to tackle the country's well-documented problem with alcohol.
Read more
September 30
(Austria) One in four students may be alcoholics, doctors warnAround 25 per cent of university and college students could be alcoholics, according to a new study.
Read more
September
(UK) The impact of introducing a Minimum Price on Alcohol in BritainOn 2nd September 2010 the Scottish Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, proposed a minimum price per unit of alcohol set at 45p.1 Minimum pricing was part of a wider Alcohol Bill in front of the Scottish Parliament2 and was the first time a figure had been set. However, minimum pricing was recently defeated at the committee stage and may not now be introduced, though the minority SNP Government still supports the measure.
Read more
OCTOBER
October 8
Facebook Implements Additional Alcohol Advertisement GuidelinesFacebook updated its advertisement policy guidelines with significant new restrictions to ads for or depicting alcohol last month. All alcohol ads must be targeted by country, cannot target any users in a set of predominantly Middle Eastern countries, and can’t include creative that misleads users to think alcohol is healthy, suitable for minors, or a contributor to success.
Read more
October 17
(Czech Republic) Young Czechs lead in alcohol consumptionAlcohol consumption of underage Czechs is the highest in Europe, according to both European studies, and this is why the government is to approve a new action plan of the fight against alcohol and drugs, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
Read more
October 19
(Norway) Norway’s ‘no-no’ to alcohol ads could be corkedTV channels transmitting from abroad with content aimed at Norwegian viewers are not permitted to advertise alcohol under current Norwegian legislation, but this could contravene European law.
Read more
October 22
(EU) EU Mulls Booze Warning LabelsBrussels is a battlefield of rule-making; there are always a thousand small skirmishes taking place off-camera, many with an impact on your future and the bottom lines of big companies. Take alcohol. The European Union is due to revise its strategy on alcohol-related harm in 2012, setting up a fight between the beer, wine and spirits industry and those seeking policies that crack down on drunken driving, addiction, and binge and underage drinking.
Read more
NOVEMBER
November 1
Alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack: studyAlcohol is even worse than heroin and crack on the list of "most harmful" drugs, according to a new study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. A variety of social, physical and psychological problems that are caused by drugs were examined by a panel of experts, who concluded that alcohol, heroin and crack were the most harmful to others while heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were the most harmful to individual users, CNN reported.
Read more
November 1
(Sweden) Efforts to curb youth drinking 'ineffective”A new report released on Monday has questioned the efficacy of the Swedish government's investment of about 900 million kronor ($135.81 million) over the last 10 years in reducing youth alcohol consumption.
Read more
November 8
(Estonia) State Sets Alcohol Consumption Target to Eight LitersEstonia should set a target to decrease its alcohol consumption to eight liters per person annually, asserted the National Institute for Health, an agency of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Read more
November 10
(Scotland) MSPs reject alcohol minimum pricingPlans to introduce a minimum price for alcohol have been finally killed off by the Scottish
Parliament as MSPs passed legislation aimed at tackling the country’s binge drinking epidemic.
Read more
November 15
(USA) Alcohol-related emergency room visits skyrocket in New York: 74,000 in 2009
Heavy boozing has caused a shocking spike in drunken injuries and emergency room visits in New York, a troubling new study says. Nearly 74,000 people wound up in hospitals in 2009 for alcohol-related reasons, compared with just 22,000 in 2003 - a jump of nearly 250%, said the city Health Department study, which was released yesterday.
Read more
November 24
(Canada) Bureaucrats face new booze rulesTreasury Board President Stockwell Day announced new rules for hospitality expenses for the public service, including a ban on expensing alcohol other than "situations that are necessary for the rules for protocol."
Read more
November
(Finland) An attempt to ban evocative alcohol advertisingIn summer 2009 the Finnish Government set up a working group to evaluate, among others, whether restrictions on evocative (visual) alcohol advertising were necessary. The working group finished its work in summer 2010 and concluded that no additional measures were needed concerning evocative alcohol advertising.
Read more
DECEMBER
December 6
Google Adjusts AdWords Alcohol Policy
Google has made changes to its advertising policy on alcohol for AdWords. The company now allows ads to promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor.
Read more
December 7
(Fiji) Cigarettes and alcohol abuse kills: MinistryMore then 82% of Fiji’s population die of non-communicable diseases says the Health Ministry and two major contributing factors are the excessive use of cigarettes and alcohol.
Read more
December 7
(EU) ALCOHOL AND CANCER: RESEARCH EVIDENCE AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
For the first time in the European Parliament, the MEPs Against Cancer (MAC) interest group hosted a meeting to evaluate the cancer hazards of alcoholic beverages, and the potential impact of this knowledge on alcohol-related policy in order to address concerns over a lack of public awareness about the carcinogenicity of alcohol.
Read more
December 11
(EU) Liver experts’ consensus: European citizens are drinking themselves to death
New research and measures to tackle societal alcohol consumption are to be announced at liver disease conference Athens, Greece, Saturday 11th December 2010: Europe is failing to deal with the life-threatening effects of excessive and regular alcohol consumption on its citizens’ health.
Read more
December 15
(USA) Over the Limit: Underage Kids See More Alcohol Ads
A new study claims a rise in TV alcohol advertising to underage young viewers -- and that the distilled spirits industry has breached its self-imposed limits. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says there was a 71% rise between 2001 and 2009 in TV alcohol commercials seen by young viewers, 12 to 20 years old.
Read more
December 23
(Lithuania) Alcohol excise tax not to be cut in Lithuania
The Seimas in Lithuania has supported the presidential veto, refusing to reduce the excise duty on alcoholic beverages.
Read more
January 1
(Russia) Trying to break Russia's vodka dependence
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is hoping for some New Year's resolution among his countrymen, as he takes on one of Russia's most deeply-entrenched and prickliest problems – alcoholism. From 1 January, restrictions on the price of vodka in Russia come into force.
Read more
January 12
(Scotland) Alcohol abuse 'costs every Scot £900 a year'
Alcohol misuse could be costing every adult in Scotland £900 every year, according to a new report. York University economists said the problem may be costing taxpayers between £2.4bn and £4.6bn.
Read more
January 28
(UK) Alcohol-related deaths in Britain rising fast
Alcohol-related deaths in Britain have more than doubled over the past 16 years, official statistics showed Thursday, with those in managerial and professional jobs regularly drinking more than manual workers.
Read more
FEBRUARY
February 1
Booze-related violence on the rise among youths
The number of alcohol-fuelled acts of violence by youths in Germany has seen a stunning increase over the last decade, a new study released on Monday showed.
Read more
February 22
(Israel) Vodka most popular alcoholic drink in Israel
Israelis drank more alcohol in 2009 and drink vodka more than any other alcoholic beverage, according to a survey conducted by the BDI business information company.
Read more
February 22
(Australia) Alcohol industry 'infiltrating' government bodies, policies
THE alcohol industry is infiltrating government bodies and influencing policies, a public health expert says. Public Health Association of Australia president Professor Mike Daube says the industry is as bad as "Big Tobacco" when it comes to pushing their wares.
Read more
February 22
(UK) 'Children, Young People and Alcohol' DCSF report published
The report 'Children, Young People and Alcohol' aims to better understand parents’ and young people’s attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol and alcohol consumption. The research was also designed to investigate how children’s behaviour may be influenced by their parent’s attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol.
Read more
February 25
Anti-booze adverts 'raise alcohol use'Advertising campaigns that warn against alcohol abuse can actually spur increase in drinking among target audiences, claims a new study. The research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Read more
MARCH
March 19
Alcohol worse than drugs in Pacific: report
Alcohol abuse is a bigger problem for Pacific communities than drugs, according to an Australian report, which links drinking to domestic violence and wide-ranging health problems.
Read more
March 23
(Russia) Vodka drinking is top killer of Russians: study
Russia's heavy consumption of cheap, strong alcoholic beverages is the key factor behind the low life expectancy of its citizens, a leading Russian institute said in a study released Tuesday.
Read more
APRIL
April 12
Adolescent drinking adds to risk of breast disease, breast cancer
Girls and young women who drink alcohol increase their risk of benign (noncancerous) breast disease, says a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University. Benign breast disease increases the risk for developing breast cancer.
Read more
April 12
(EU) Alcohol consumption is falling in most big European countries
ACROSS Europe, economies are stagnating and unemployment is climbing. Reason enough, you might think, to hit the bottle. Europeans put away over nine litres of alcohol a year per person, twice the global average. The European Commission has declared that alcohol is a “key public-health and social concern”. Yet in most big EU countries drinking is in decline.
Read more
April 12
Drinking spreads in social networks
Social networks can be powerful, influencing such important health behaviors as gaining weight or quitting smoking, Harvard researchers have reported in a series of studies. Now the same team says that how much alcohol an individual drinks is affected by relatives and friends, a conclusion that has implications for how to help problem drinkers.
Read more
April 12
(UK) Report: Expensive Health Campaigns Fail To Curb Britons’ Excessive Eating, Drinking
A report by independent British health charity the King’s Fund assesses the performance of the government’s National Health Service to guide voters about to cast their ballot on May 6 for the next government.
Read more
April 13
Fetal alcohol disorders common in Eastern Europe adoptees
Many children adopted from Eastern European countries may have been exposed to damaging levels of alcohol in the womb, a new study suggests.
Read more
MAY
May 2
(Denmark) Young Danes dying from alcohol abuse
A new study has confirmed the image of heavy drinking Danes, with reports of 25 youths dying from alcohol abuse since 2002.
Read more
May 3
(Sweden) Sweden Fighting Teenage Alcohol Abuse
The attitude of parents is a vital factor in the fight against alcohol abuse among teenagers Swedish agencies say. The Swedish National Institute of Public Health has joined forces with national police in a year-long campaign against buying alcohol for teenagers.
Read more
May 19
Alcohol Companies Use New Media to Lure Young Drinkers: Report
Alcohol companies are increasingly using the latest new media technologies -- including cell phones, social networking sites, YouTube and other features of the expanding digital universe -- to reach young drinkers, a new report contends.
Read more
May 20
(WHO) WHO to tackle alcohol misuse, binge drinking
Health ministers agreed on Thursday to try to curb binge drinking and other growing forms of excessive alcohol use through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations. The global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol was adopted by consensus at the annual assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Read more
May 23
(WHO) Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO
Harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people annually and is the eighth leading factor for deaths globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. Of the 2.5 million people, 320,000 people are between 15 and 29 years of age, it said.
Read more
JUNE
June 11
(UK) Knighthood for alcohol campaigner
The head of the Royal College of Physicians, who has campaigned for measures to tackle alcohol misuse, has been knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Read more
June 22
(EU) 4th European Alcohol Policy Conference : "From capacity to action"
The Fourth European Alcohol Policy Conference was held on 21 and 22 June 2010 by Eurocare, the European Alcohol Policy Alliance. The aim of the Conference was to gather people from a broad range of sectors to exchange and communicate on alcohol-related issues and policies aiming at effectively preventing and reducing alcohol-related harm.
Read more
June 28
(New Zealand) Six-fold surge in deaths from alcohol
The number of alcohol-related deaths investigated by the Coroner's Office has increased dramatically, mostly due to binge drinking. In the eight years to 2008, the toll rose by more than six times to 254.
Read more
JULY
July 5
(Africa) Global brewers hope to tap a new market: Africa
As economic development and political stability pull more people out of poverty, multinational beer makers are trying to quench their growing thirst for alcohol.
Read more
AUGUST
August 2
(USA) Number of Americans Drinking Alcohol Hits 25-Year High
The number of adults in the U.S. drinking alcohol has hit a 25-year high, the New York Daily News reported Sunday, as the nation continues to experience economic instability.
Read more
August 7
Alcohol: the forgotten drug in HIV/AIDSAlcohol has long been recognised as an important contributor to illness and injury, accounting for 4% of the global burden of disease. 1 Yet alcohol remains conspicuously absent from the larger field of research and programming in HIV and substance use.
Read more
August 14
(Canada) Lawyers call for ‘decriminalization’ of fetal alcohol offendersPeople who suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome and commit criminal offences don’t belong in jail, Canada’s largest lawyers’ organization says.
Read more
August 23
(New Zealand) New Zealand proposes new rules on alcohol salesNew Zealand's government has proposed several changes to alcohol laws in a bid to curb youth drinking.
Read more
August 23
(Australia) Alcohol costs Australia $36 billion/year: reportA new report on the harm caused by alcohol misuse in Australia claims the economic cost amounts to a staggering $36 billion a year. That's more than double previous estimates.
Read more
August 30
Alcohol-related harm, a global issueThe Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the South Pacific Community(SPC) are taking the lead in organizing a historical two days workshop on the 25th and 26th this week at the Quality Inn. The Workshop was first of its kind in the country to develop a Multi-Sect oral National Alcohol Policy for our country Solomon Islands.
Read more
SEPTEMBER
September 1
(Iceland) Alcohol Ad Laws TightenedA bill submitted to parliament may close loopholes that alcohol importers and manufacturers have used in the current Icelandic law banning the advertising of alcoholic beverages.
Read more
September 3
(Kenya) Kenyan market frets over impact of new alcohol lawA new Kenyan alcohol law could open up East African Breweries (EABL.NR) to competition, with micro-brewers springing up to capitalise on the legalisation of traditional liquors, analysts said.
Read more
September 4
(Sweden) Privatizing Retail Alcohol Sales in Sweden Will Escalate Alcohol-Related Violence
Privatizing Sweden's government monopoly on the sale of alcohol, a study published today in the scientific journal Addiction argues, will significantly increase alcohol-related violence and other harms.
Read more
September 23
(Scotland) Minimum alcohol price plans defeated by MSPsMSPs have rejected the Scottish government's proposal to introduce a minimum price for alcohol. The Scottish National Party's (SNP's) flagship policy would have seen a minimum price of 45p per unit of alcohol introduced across Scotland in a bid to tackle the country's well-documented problem with alcohol.
Read more
September 30
(Austria) One in four students may be alcoholics, doctors warnAround 25 per cent of university and college students could be alcoholics, according to a new study.
Read more
September
(UK) The impact of introducing a Minimum Price on Alcohol in BritainOn 2nd September 2010 the Scottish Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, proposed a minimum price per unit of alcohol set at 45p.1 Minimum pricing was part of a wider Alcohol Bill in front of the Scottish Parliament2 and was the first time a figure had been set. However, minimum pricing was recently defeated at the committee stage and may not now be introduced, though the minority SNP Government still supports the measure.
Read more
OCTOBER
October 8
Facebook Implements Additional Alcohol Advertisement GuidelinesFacebook updated its advertisement policy guidelines with significant new restrictions to ads for or depicting alcohol last month. All alcohol ads must be targeted by country, cannot target any users in a set of predominantly Middle Eastern countries, and can’t include creative that misleads users to think alcohol is healthy, suitable for minors, or a contributor to success.
Read more
October 17
(Czech Republic) Young Czechs lead in alcohol consumptionAlcohol consumption of underage Czechs is the highest in Europe, according to both European studies, and this is why the government is to approve a new action plan of the fight against alcohol and drugs, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
Read more
October 19
(Norway) Norway’s ‘no-no’ to alcohol ads could be corkedTV channels transmitting from abroad with content aimed at Norwegian viewers are not permitted to advertise alcohol under current Norwegian legislation, but this could contravene European law.
Read more
October 22
(EU) EU Mulls Booze Warning LabelsBrussels is a battlefield of rule-making; there are always a thousand small skirmishes taking place off-camera, many with an impact on your future and the bottom lines of big companies. Take alcohol. The European Union is due to revise its strategy on alcohol-related harm in 2012, setting up a fight between the beer, wine and spirits industry and those seeking policies that crack down on drunken driving, addiction, and binge and underage drinking.
Read more
NOVEMBER
November 1
Alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack: studyAlcohol is even worse than heroin and crack on the list of "most harmful" drugs, according to a new study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. A variety of social, physical and psychological problems that are caused by drugs were examined by a panel of experts, who concluded that alcohol, heroin and crack were the most harmful to others while heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were the most harmful to individual users, CNN reported.
Read more
November 1
(Sweden) Efforts to curb youth drinking 'ineffective”A new report released on Monday has questioned the efficacy of the Swedish government's investment of about 900 million kronor ($135.81 million) over the last 10 years in reducing youth alcohol consumption.
Read more
November 8
(Estonia) State Sets Alcohol Consumption Target to Eight LitersEstonia should set a target to decrease its alcohol consumption to eight liters per person annually, asserted the National Institute for Health, an agency of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Read more
November 10
(Scotland) MSPs reject alcohol minimum pricingPlans to introduce a minimum price for alcohol have been finally killed off by the Scottish
Parliament as MSPs passed legislation aimed at tackling the country’s binge drinking epidemic.
Read more
November 15
(USA) Alcohol-related emergency room visits skyrocket in New York: 74,000 in 2009
Heavy boozing has caused a shocking spike in drunken injuries and emergency room visits in New York, a troubling new study says. Nearly 74,000 people wound up in hospitals in 2009 for alcohol-related reasons, compared with just 22,000 in 2003 - a jump of nearly 250%, said the city Health Department study, which was released yesterday.
Read more
November 24
(Canada) Bureaucrats face new booze rulesTreasury Board President Stockwell Day announced new rules for hospitality expenses for the public service, including a ban on expensing alcohol other than "situations that are necessary for the rules for protocol."
Read more
November
(Finland) An attempt to ban evocative alcohol advertisingIn summer 2009 the Finnish Government set up a working group to evaluate, among others, whether restrictions on evocative (visual) alcohol advertising were necessary. The working group finished its work in summer 2010 and concluded that no additional measures were needed concerning evocative alcohol advertising.
Read more
DECEMBER
December 6
Google Adjusts AdWords Alcohol Policy
Google has made changes to its advertising policy on alcohol for AdWords. The company now allows ads to promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor.
Read more
December 7
(Fiji) Cigarettes and alcohol abuse kills: MinistryMore then 82% of Fiji’s population die of non-communicable diseases says the Health Ministry and two major contributing factors are the excessive use of cigarettes and alcohol.
Read more
December 7
(EU) ALCOHOL AND CANCER: RESEARCH EVIDENCE AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
For the first time in the European Parliament, the MEPs Against Cancer (MAC) interest group hosted a meeting to evaluate the cancer hazards of alcoholic beverages, and the potential impact of this knowledge on alcohol-related policy in order to address concerns over a lack of public awareness about the carcinogenicity of alcohol.
Read more
December 11
(EU) Liver experts’ consensus: European citizens are drinking themselves to death
New research and measures to tackle societal alcohol consumption are to be announced at liver disease conference Athens, Greece, Saturday 11th December 2010: Europe is failing to deal with the life-threatening effects of excessive and regular alcohol consumption on its citizens’ health.
Read more
December 15
(USA) Over the Limit: Underage Kids See More Alcohol Ads
A new study claims a rise in TV alcohol advertising to underage young viewers -- and that the distilled spirits industry has breached its self-imposed limits. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says there was a 71% rise between 2001 and 2009 in TV alcohol commercials seen by young viewers, 12 to 20 years old.
Read more
December 23
(Lithuania) Alcohol excise tax not to be cut in Lithuania
The Seimas in Lithuania has supported the presidential veto, refusing to reduce the excise duty on alcoholic beverages.
Read more
