- Britain should return to the halcyon days of 1970, when
men's hair graced their shoulders, we all wore platform shoes and flared
trousers, and the alcohol we downed to the syncopations of Mungo Jerry's
In the Summertime was - well - expensive, it was suggested yesterday by
some of the country's leading doctors.
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- Never mind the arguable sartorial or musical merits of
the epoch, the attraction of 1970 to the Academy of Medical Sciences was
its bar prices. In a report published yesterday, a working group argued
that in the interests of cutting the rise of binge drinking and alcohol-related
violence and death in the UK, the government should heap taxes on to our
beer, wine and spirits until they cost as much relative to our disposable
income as they did in 1970.
-
- That would double the cost of a £4 bottle of wine,
push beer up to £5 a pint and set you back around £20 for a
bottle of whisky. But the payback, the academy says, would be startling.
A mere 10% price rise would bring down deaths from cirrhosis of the liver
by 7% for men and 8.3% for women. It would cut male murder victims by 5%
and female by 7.1%. The overall drop in alcohol-related deaths, including
alcohol dependence and poisoning, would be 28.8% among men and 37.4% among
women.
-
- Sir Michael Marmot, who chaired the working group, and
Lord Turnberg, vice president of the academy, believe that the problem
is now so severe that tax hikes, cuts in duty-free allowances and curbs
on alcohol advertising need to be considered. Deaths from cirrhosis of
the liver have increased nine times among young men and women since 1970,
and 70% of those are due to drinking. Alcohol is responsible for 150,000
hospital admissions a year and up to a third of all accident and emergency
cases.
-
- Call for debate
-
- They called for a public debate on what should be done
to restrain the nation's drinking culture and insisted that it is the drinking
habits of all of us - not just the heavy and binge drinkers - that need
to change.
-
- Lord Turnberg said it was obvious that if people were
asked whether they would like to pay more for their wine, they would say
no.
-
- "If you had a proper informed deliberation, where
it was put to people that there is a link between what they see in their
inner cities and don't like, and between the rising tide of cirrhosis mortality
and the price, then we might have a different outcome," he said.
-
- The report, which has the backing of the Royal College
of Physicians, comes just ahead of a promised government alcohol strategy,
and is expected to influence it. There is serious concern in medical circles
as well as political about the damage that the UK's legal drug is doing
in terms of health, crime and social problems.
-
- Alcohol fuels violence. The annual costs of alcohol-related
crime and public disorder were estimated at £7.3bn last year. The
costs to the workplace were £6.4bn and health costs were £1.7bn.
Nobody has been able to estimate the impact on families.
-
- About 2.9 million people in Britain, or 7% of the population,
are thought to be alcohol-dependent. The British Crime Survey shows that
47% of victims of violence thought their assailant was under the influence
of alcohol. Seven out of 10 people who responded to a Mori poll in 2001
said drinking in public places was a problem where they lived. Between
30% and 60% of child protection cases involve alcohol. Up to 1.3 million
children may be adversely affected by family drinking.
-
- Drinking patterns in Britain do not look good. Recent
European research on which the academy relied (the European Comparative
Alcohol Study) shows that the UK and Finland had the highest levels of
social alcohol-related harm of six countries studied - Finland and Sweden
in northern Europe, UK and Germany in central Europe and France and Italy
in southern Europe.
-
- Little and often
-
- Men and women in Italy drink more often than they do
in the UK, but they drink less. Those in the UK, Finland and Sweden have
the highest alcohol consumption at one session, and the biggest drinkers
in those countries are the young. Drinking in bars, restaurants and home
but without eating is most common in the UK. In France and Italy, 80% of
drinking is during a meal, but in the UK the figure is 50%.
-
- The academy insists it is not advocating teetotalism.
Moderate drinking has health benefits. It reduces heart attacks and strokes
in men over 40 and post-menopausal women. But, said Sir Michael: "The
pleasure alcohol brings has to be balanced against the harms. A strategic
programme is needed now to curb the nation's escalating level of drinking
in the interests of both individual and public health."
-
- Price rises would reduce most people's consumption, but
would fall hardest on those who cause most concern, young people and heavy
drinkers.
-
- Cuts in duty free quotas should be considered, the report
says. The EU allows 10 litres of spirits, 20 litres of fortified wine,
90 litres of table wine and 110 litres of beer. If a regular drinker knocks
back the equivalent of a bottle of wine a day, that amounts to a 272-day
supply. The report proposes a cut to a 40-day supply.
-
- Extended or unlimited opening hours lead not to slower
drinking, which was the justification for the change in the law, but to
drinking too much, says the report. That should be part of the public discussion
they advocate, along with alcohol advertising and tougher drink-driving
restrictions.
-
- - Calling Time: The Nation's Drinking As a Major Health
Issue is available from the Academy of Medical Sciences, 10 Carlton House
Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1162643,00.html
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