New research says alcohol causes one in 10 European deaths
Sarah Boseley, health editor
The Guardian, Friday 26 June 2009
Article history
One in 10 deaths in Europe are caused by alcohol, according to research published today, and one in 25 around the world.
Doctors writing in the Lancet say that drinkers mostly die from injuries, cancer, heart disease and liver cirrhosis. Alcohol can also cause a significant amount of disability.
Claims that red wine can be good for the heart have been overstated. The net effect of drinking on heart disease, says the paper, by Dr J?rgen Rehm and colleagues from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, "might be beneficial in regions in which alcohol is regularly consumed lightly to moderately without heavy drinking occasions, but this benefit is restricted to older people only".
People have drunk alcohol since the beginning of recorded history, the authors say, but it has become more damaging. "The industrialisation of production and globalisation of marketing and promotion of alcohol have increased both the amount of worldwide consumption and the harms associated with it," they write.
Globally, each person drinks the equivalent of 6.2 litres of pure ethanol on average a year, which is 12 units a week. But drinking rates rise as societies become wealthier. In Europe, the average is 11.9 litres of ethanol per year per person (21.5 units a week). In Britain, men are recommended not to drink more than 21 units a week and women 14.
Men are heavier drinkers than women and are more likely to binge, but rising rates of alcohol consumption are due to women drinking more. Although overall 3.8% of all deaths worldwide are due to alcohol, 6.3% of men's deaths are from drinking and 1.8% of women's.
In Europe, 10% of deaths are caused by drinking, with the peak in the former Soviet Union, at 15%. But the death rates are higher in developing countries and especially in south-east Asia relative to the lower amount that is drunk.
"Globally, the effect of alcohol on the burden of disease is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000, but it is greatest in developing countries," the authors write.
They point out that most of the adult population worldwide actually abstains from drinking alcohol.
Nonetheless, the cost of alcohol, in terms of healthcare and social harm, reaches 1% of GNP in high- and middle-income countries. "Overall, we conclude that alcohol consumption is one of the major avoidable risk factors, and actions to reduce burden and costs associated with alcohol should be urgently increased," they say.
Another paper in a series of three published today calls for an international framework convention on alcohol control, just as there is for tobacco.
Sarah Boseley, health editor
The Guardian, Friday 26 June 2009
Article history
One in 10 deaths in Europe are caused by alcohol, according to research published today, and one in 25 around the world.
Doctors writing in the Lancet say that drinkers mostly die from injuries, cancer, heart disease and liver cirrhosis. Alcohol can also cause a significant amount of disability.
Claims that red wine can be good for the heart have been overstated. The net effect of drinking on heart disease, says the paper, by Dr J?rgen Rehm and colleagues from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, "might be beneficial in regions in which alcohol is regularly consumed lightly to moderately without heavy drinking occasions, but this benefit is restricted to older people only".
People have drunk alcohol since the beginning of recorded history, the authors say, but it has become more damaging. "The industrialisation of production and globalisation of marketing and promotion of alcohol have increased both the amount of worldwide consumption and the harms associated with it," they write.
Globally, each person drinks the equivalent of 6.2 litres of pure ethanol on average a year, which is 12 units a week. But drinking rates rise as societies become wealthier. In Europe, the average is 11.9 litres of ethanol per year per person (21.5 units a week). In Britain, men are recommended not to drink more than 21 units a week and women 14.
Men are heavier drinkers than women and are more likely to binge, but rising rates of alcohol consumption are due to women drinking more. Although overall 3.8% of all deaths worldwide are due to alcohol, 6.3% of men's deaths are from drinking and 1.8% of women's.
In Europe, 10% of deaths are caused by drinking, with the peak in the former Soviet Union, at 15%. But the death rates are higher in developing countries and especially in south-east Asia relative to the lower amount that is drunk.
"Globally, the effect of alcohol on the burden of disease is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000, but it is greatest in developing countries," the authors write.
They point out that most of the adult population worldwide actually abstains from drinking alcohol.
Nonetheless, the cost of alcohol, in terms of healthcare and social harm, reaches 1% of GNP in high- and middle-income countries. "Overall, we conclude that alcohol consumption is one of the major avoidable risk factors, and actions to reduce burden and costs associated with alcohol should be urgently increased," they say.
Another paper in a series of three published today calls for an international framework convention on alcohol control, just as there is for tobacco.
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