Putting an end to "all you can drink offers"

New UK Government proposals mean that the all you can drink promotions could be banned in England and Wales.

We welcome the crackdown on such promotions which can lead to excessive drinking.

The health consequences of binge drinking or regularly drinking over and above the recommended daily limits are serious and severe. The number of deaths in Wales as a result of the abuse of alcohol continues to rise, and doctors report an increase in the number of young people presenting to the NHS with serious illness resulting from alcohol misuse.

We are pleased that the UK Government are taking action, but if they are serious about tackling the UK binge drinking culture, even tougher action is necessary.

There is strong and consistent evidence that an increase in price will reduce consumption, and BMA Cymru believes that this should form a central plank of any strategy to deal with alcohol misuse.

More warnings over health risks linked to alcohol

Health warnings in the news again concerning alcohol, but this is one that is perhaps not so well known. How many of us actually realised that drink could be linked to oral cancers? Cigarettes - definitely. But alcohol? It’s usually liver disease that is seen as being the number one health problem associated with alcohol, so could that soon be superceded?

It seems this is yet another reason for why drink should be consumed in moderation and to not accept the “binge drinking” culture that is so much the norm in the UK. This report from Cancer Research UK highlights that about three-quarters of oral cancers are thought to be caused by drinking alcohol and smoking.

The BMA has often outlined how doctors witness the devastation of alcohol on patients and the crippling effect it has on the NHS. So what price could we all soon be paying for the treatment of this huge increase in conditions like mouth cancer?

Just last month we repeated our calls at the BMA’s annual conference to have a minimum price for a unit of alcohol introduced by the UK government, partly because of the increased burden of alcohol-related diseases and complications on our nation’s health.

All the following points were agreed upon by members in July.

We…

ii) believe that a minimum pricing strategy would not unduly disadvantage responsible alcohol consumers;
iii) call for all alcoholic beverages to have clearer labelling indicating alcoholic content and unit value;
iv) call on the BMA to lobby government for a total ban on alcohol advertising in the media;
v) demand that revenue obtained from increased prices should be used for the prevention of alcohol misuse and the rehabilitation of alcohol abusers.

And reports like this one today just add more ammunition to our fight.

ARM – day four – rounding off with occupational health, tobacco and alcohol debates

To kick off the last session of the BMA’s 2009 ARM conference, members looked at the topic of occupational health, something which has been a pertinent issue at BMA Cymru Wales recently. We’ve been seeking assurances that the future of the Primary Care Support Service (PCSS), which is the ONLY occupational health service for doctors in primary care, will be secured during the NHS reorganisation agenda.

Next – on to motions on the environment, calling on the BMA to do more to highlight the global health risks associated with climate change and to reduce our own carbon footprint. We then turned to the important public health issues of nutrition, exercise and obesity, an area in which Wales faces considerable challenges if we are to address them, particularly childhood obesity. Motions calling for more local recreational facilities (swimming pools, cycle routes etc) remind me that when I get back I must find out how Dr Dai Lloyd AM’s proposed Measure on playing fields is getting on.

The HPV vaccine sparked a valuable and lively debate with conference deciding that the roll-out of the vaccine should be extended to boys not just girls, and that it has been a missed opportunity to vaccinate against other diseases such as genital warts.

Also a subject with high prevalence rates in Wales: drugs and addiction. The topics covered by this set of motions call for minimum unit pricing for alcohol; clearer labelling; a ban on alcohol advertising in the media and the redirection of revenue into prevention and rehabilitation programmes. These motions passed UNANIMOUSLY.

Tobacco also generated a good discussion with motions proposed for all forms of tobacco advertising to be banned, including at the point of sale and another calling for cigarette vending machines to be restricted.

After four days of rigorous and impassioned debate, conference draws to a close and its time to return to Cardiff. The ARM has set BMA policy and determined many of the issues that we will be working on for the next twelve months.

For anyone who wants to see a full webcast and results of the motions debated this week click here.

How much worse does binge drinking have to get before our politicians take action?

This article in the Wales on Sunday makes for disappointing reading for the BMA and its members, who deal on daily basis, with the very real consequences of alcohol misuse. The fact that many Assembly Members don’t think that raising the cost of drink won’t in any way help prevent binge-drinking, is quite staggering.
I hope this doesn’t stop the Welsh Assembly Government from continuing to support the idea of setting a minimum price on alcohol, with the Social Justice Minister, Dr Brian Gibbons saying he’d like to see a graded form of tax on drink, where a lower tax is placed on weaker alcohol and a higher tax is placed on stronger alcohol.
Last year the BMA published a report ‘Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic’, calling on governments in the UK to implement a full range of effective control policies that will reduce the burden of alcohol misuse.

It highlights how recent governments have worked too closely with the alcohol industry, pursuing policies of deregulation and liberalisation regarding alcohol control, contributing to the destruction of many people’s lives. It causes family breakdowns, is a major factor in domestic violence, ruins job prospects, is often related to crime and disorderly behaviour and it kills.

Alcohol misuse is related to over 60 medical conditions including heart and liver disease, diabetes, strokes and mental health problems. The government approach has led to increased consumption levels and alcohol-related problems and demonstrates a failure in the political drive to improve public health and order.

As well as the human cost, it also costs the NHS millions every year, treating and dealing with alcohol problems and the criminal justice system also spends similarly large amounts dealing with alcohol-related and drink-driving offences.

Key recommendations from this report include:

• Higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and this increase should be proportionate to the amount of alcohol in the product.
• An end to irresponsible promotional activities like happy hours and two-for-one offers.
• Standard labels should be displayed on all alcoholic products that clearly state alcohol units, recommended guidelines for consumption and a warning message advising that exceeding these guidelines may cause the individual and others harm.
• The legal limit for the level of alcohol permitted while driving should be reduced from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml throughout the UK.

Mass public awareness campaigns, which some AMs seem to be pointing to as a possible solution, may be politically attractive and increase knowledge about alcohol misuse, but they are very expensive and ultimately ineffective if unsupported by broad based policy. Targeted approaches are vital, including measures to reduce the availability of drink.

And we are not calling for minimum pricing of drink, to be killjoys, this is just part of it. The BMA also recognises that preventing alcohol-related harm requires accurately pin-pointing those who misuse alcohol. Yet, there is currently no system for routine screening and management of alcohol misuse in primary or secondary care settings in the UK. So, we would like to see a more comprehensive system of identifying patients at risk which could be done through screening questionnaires, when individuals visit their GP, or attend for a general hospital appointment, or when they go to A&E. So, if the WAG wants to continue with its plans for dealing with alcohol misuse, it has our full support.

Read the BMA’s report on this in detail http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/tacklingalcoholmisuse