Alcohol Alert – August 2020

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

In this edition:

* The UK Government weighs up the trade-off between keeping pubs open or reopening schools in light of potential new lockdown

* New drink-driving data from the Department for Transport show no ‘significant improvement’ for another year, as road accidents and casualties stay largely unchanged since 2010

* Research looks into the recent history of alcohol and mental health policy for older people in the UK 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

* A study finds alcohol advertising in Formula One racing is a potential driver of alcohol consumption

* Top health experts call for alcohol labelling overhaul as investigation finds consumers are not provided with adequate information about the beverages they drink

* In Ireland, the 2020 Alcohol Market Review and Price Survey finds drinkers are able to reach their weekly alcohol limit for pocket money prices

* Better Health campaign urges drinkers to think about the ‘empty calories’ in alcohol

* Global drinks producer Diageo manage to keep their UK sales operation afloat during the pandemic, through targeted e-commerce tactics

* Rumours that a booze ban on drinking in football stadiums will be lifted resurface in the press

We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.

Another (potential) lockdown – pubs versus schools

Will pubs have to close their doors again in the event of a second wave of COVID-19? Yes, if chair of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) sub-group on pandemic modelling, professor Graham Medley, had his way (The Guardian, 01 Aug).

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine academic told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It might come down to a question of which do you trade-off against each other and then that’s a matter of prioritising, do we think pubs are more important than schools?’

And so, a national debate began, with pubs pitted against schools radio and TV studios across the UK’s broadcasting network:

Early reports suggested the government would choose to keep pubs open regardless, with English pubs ‘likely to be spared any new restrictions on social contact to stem coronavirus outbreaks’ (The Guardian, 03 Aug). This came as drinkers and businesses toasted the reopening of pubs, cafés and restaurants indoors in Wales (BBC News Wales, 03 Aug).

In an economic sense, the importance of public houses being open for business is obvious: overall consumption levels have fallen as a direct result of mass closures of licensed premises during the recent lockdown, a contributing factor to the country’s worst recession on record.

However, in some instances, the trade-off with health became too stark to ignore. Scotland’s beer gardens opened on 06 July, but lockdown restrictions were reimposed in Aberdeen after a COVID-19 cluster outbreak was found to be linked to a pub in the region (BBC Scotland, 05 Aug).

And south of the border, the clamour for closure grew alongside fears of a second lockdown. Councils called for more power to shut pubs flouting COVID-19 guidance to combat the problem (Morning Advertiser, 10 Aug).

Subsequent reports suggested that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would ‘sooner close pubs, restaurants and shops than have schools shut again amid concerns for both the educational future of children and for their safety and wellbeing without the safeguarding provided in the classroom’ (The Independent, 10 Aug).

However, if we have learnt anything from the lockdown earlier this year, we know that if the pubs close their doors again, the off-trade will be on hand to pick up the slack. Nielsen data found that many drinkers flocked to purchase alcohol from their local off-licensed premises: ‘in the 17 weeks of lockdown to 11 July, UK consumers spent £7·7bn on alcohol in UK supermarkets – an increase of £1·9bn year on year’ (The Grocer, 30 Jul).

It appears that for many Brits, drinking at home is no substitute for drinking in a social setting. Gemma Cooper, senior client business partner at Nielsen, told the trade mag:

Without being able to go out or socialise with others during the peak of the pandemic, and no access to dine-in pubs or restaurants, we have seen a natural decline in alcohol consumption even as at-home drinking increased.

Furthermore, even as the government holds out hope for pubs keeping the economy afloat, research from Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Portsmouth, Emily Nicholls, and Lecturer in Psychology at the University of East London, Dominic Conroy, suggests that ‘although many people missed pubs, they are not necessarily ready to rush back to those that have reopened’ (The Conversation, 03 Aug).

Interviewing a cross-section of self-defined social drinkers about their drinking habits during lockdown, they found that those who expressed a reluctance to drink alone ‘missed the sociability of going to pubs’, but others were also aware that ‘the reopening of pubs does not signify a return to normality’, all of which raises the question of whether pubs can return to the position of being institutions of spontaneous, intimate, and fluid social interactions between individuals any time soon.

It may also explain the government’s desire to focus on implementing widespread restrictions on social contact rather than closing down specific industries like pubs.

Ultimately, consumer confidence will determine pubs’ future: business-friendly measures such as granting permission to sell takeaway alcohol may not have as much impact on sales as is hoped.

At some point in this trade-off between indoor venues for which is most worthy of being exempted from restrictions, the government will have to abandon the hope that the coronavirus knows the difference between a school classroom, a boozer and a living room, to paraphrase a columnist from The Independent (04 Aug). Ironically, for all the emphasis on priding the economy over public health, it may well be public health measures to eliminate the virus that are the only key to pub industry surviving this pandemic in good health.

Drink-driving data shows no ‘significant’ improvement yet again

There were an estimated 240 deaths due to road accidents where at least one driver or passenger was over the drink drive limit in 2018, a small but ‘not statistically significant’ fall on the previous year, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

In fact, the new Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, final estimates involving illegal alcohol levels release (27 Aug) saw little change in many areas, indicating little improvement in drink-driving policy for the best part of the decade.

The new lower central estimate of drink drive deaths (representing 13% of all deaths from reported road accidents in 2018), similar to the levels reported in 2010; however, the decrease from 250 deaths in 2017 is not statistically significant, meaning this decrease is more likely due to chance.

The DfT also estimated that 8,680 people were injured or killed when at least a driver or passenger was above the drink drive limit in 2018, a 1% increase on last year, although still 4% lower than in 2016. The annual number of drink-driving accidents of all severities rose 3% to 5,890 in 2018 – again, lower than in 2016 (-3%). And 5% of reported accidents on Great Britain’s roads involved drink drivers, a level that has remained more or less the same since mid-2000s.

Developments in UK alcohol policy and public mental health for older people

🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

In many countries, an increase in the number of people aged over 50 is resulting in a subsequent shift of those who are most vulnerable to alcohol-related harm. Using Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as a marker of morbidity, alcohol increased to the 5th (from 14th) highest risk factor for those aged 50 to 69 in England, between 1990 and 2017.

Amidst this scenario, a new piece of research aims to detail developments in UK alcohol policy for older people, based on evidence for a growing public health problem with alcohol misuse in that age cohort.

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