Alcohol Alert - June 2022

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

In this edition:

* International experts call for ban on all alcohol promotion 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

* ‘No clear evidence’ MUP reduces harmful drinking

* Vast difference in alcohol-related deaths remains between richest and poorest in Scotland

* Contents Unknown: How alcohol labelling still fails consumers

* ‘No place for cheap alcohol: The potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives’

* Sobriety tags rolled-out further despite no evidence of efficacy

* Irish Government makes moves to improve product labelling

* Brexit Freedoms Bill could deliver pint-sized wine bottles

* No and low alcohol sales double in the UK

* Alcohol Toolkit Study: update

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

IAS Blogs

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International experts call for ban on all alcohol promotion 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

Realising Our Rights, a new report launched on 28 June by Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS) and a group of subject experts, calls on governments across the world to introduce comprehensive restrictions on alcohol marketing in order to improve health.

The publication explains how increasingly sophisticated marketing means that people are being constantly bombarded with positive messages about how alcohol enhances their lives. The alcohol marketing experts who helped develop the report point out that this seeks to build long-term relationships between people and alcohol brands, which reinforce alcohol as a social norm and ultimately contribute to high levels of consumption and harm across the world.

They particularly draw attention to at-risk population groups, with children and young people, and people at risk of an alcohol problem, more affected than others.

A number of additional pieces of research were commissioned to help develop the report, including research examining the impact of alcohol marketing on people with an alcohol problem. The complementary research found that this demographic has an increased susceptibility to alcohol marketing, which fosters positive alcohol-related emotions and increases their likelihood of drinking.

The group’s recommendations include:

Additional research for the report included analysing case studies from seven countries with marketing restrictions, to understand the processes, successes and challenges to introducing these restrictions. These case studies can be used by countries looking to introduce similar restrictions, to better understand issues around:

* Utilising a window of opportunity

* Opposition from the alcohol industry

* How to frame regulations

* Use of evidence and arguments

The AFS report includes a human rights-based approach to marketing restrictions, highlighting that states have a legal obligation to protect citizens’ rights – such as the right to health – and that commodities that infringe on these rights need further restriction.

AFS’ Chief Executive, Alison Douglas, said:

“The current self-regulatory approach to alcohol marketing is failing to protect people and has led to our communities being wallpapered with promotions for a product that harms our health.

“People don’t just have a need to be protected from alcohol marketing they have a right to be protected.  A number of other countries have already imposed bans on alcohol marketing, if we want to create a more positive culture where everyone can realise their right to health, the UK and Scottish governments must act to restrict alcohol marketing.”

The Scottish Government is consulting this year on marketing restrictions, and the Minister for Public Health, Maree Todd said:

“I welcome this report and will study carefully its detailed findings and recommendations. I am determined to tackle the harmful impacts that alcohol marketing can have on children and young people, as well as the triggering effect it can have on heavy drinkers and those in recovery.”

Tom Bennett, one of the report experts who is in long-term, abstinent recovery from an alcohol problem, said:

“Alcohol marketing can be massively triggering; it’s designed to be. Seeing an image of a cold beer on a warm sunny day or a midwinter glass of whisky in front of an open fire can be highly appealing. Yet the message these images convey, that alcohol is life enhancing, is at odds with the health risks.”

‘No clear evidence’ MUP reduces harmful drinking

Public Health Scotland and the University of Sheffield released the final report on the impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland, which suggests that among those drinking at harmful levels or those with alcohol dependence, there is “no clear evidence of a change in consumption or severity of dependence”.

It also found that some economically vulnerable groups saw increased financial strain as they ended up spending more on alcohol. Some of those surveyed reduced spending on other things such as food and utilities.

Public Health Scotland’s theory of change for MUP (reproduced from Beeston et al, 2019)

However, there was little evidence of other negative consequences, such as increased crime or a shift to illicit substances. As this was an argument frequently used against the introduction of MUP, it is an important consideration.

Further, the proportion of people who had drunk at hazardous levels in the last week fell significantly by 3.5% in the market research data. Other analyses of Scotland’s MUP have also found reductions in consumption among some population groups.

Professor John Holmes, the lead researcher on the project, highlighted in a recent IAS blog that MUP isn’t designed to reduce drinking for those who are dependent:

“Alcohol dependence is a more complex problem than harmful drinking and is best-tackled by early identification of alcohol problems and the provision of an accessible and effective treatment system.

“MUP may therefore only contribute to a reduction in alcohol dependence by preventing future cases rather than addressing current ones.

“Overall, our report offers a nuanced and mixed picture of the impact of MUP on a key population of concern, with both positive and negative findings for those on both sides of the policy debate.”

During a meeting of the health committee in Holyrood, Dr Sandesh Gulhane (Conservative MSP for Glasgow) claimed that MUP was failing, and that the most vulnerable were cutting back on food to afford the high prices. Professor Petra Meier responded that pricing policies alone would not be enough to alter the consumption for some very heavy drinkers, and investment in health services is also necessary: “addiction services have had major cutbacks during Covid, they have been virtually inaccessible unless you were able to join online groups and make do with things like alcoholics anonymous online and so on.”

Vast difference in alcohol-related deaths remains between richest and poorest in Scotland

In related news, Public Health Scotland (PHS) also released its MESAS report 2022 (Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland's Alcohol Strategy) on 21 June , which shows huge inequality between the poorest and most affluent adults who consume alcohol, in terms of hospital stays and deaths.

Rates of alcohol-specific deaths were five times higher in the poorest communities and hospital stays were nearly eight times higher.

Vicki Ponce Hardy of PHS said the report showed that significant inequalities were resulting in "preventable" deaths:

“The most recent survey data shows that almost a quarter (24%) of adults in Scotland still drink more than the recommended, low risk, weekly, drinking guideline. Among those exceeding the guideline, it's those in the lowest income group who are likely to consume the most."

Contents Unknown: How alcohol labelling still fails consumers

A new study by the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) looked at alcohol product labelling information on 369 products and found that:

The AHA recommends that the UK Government sets up an independent body to monitor and enforce mandatory labelling, based on the WHO’s best practice for labelling.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, AHA’s chair, said:

“Those who profit from the sale of alcohol cannot be trusted to willingly provide product information. Legislation on alcohol labelling must ensure that consumers have the full picture of the contents and risk to health of the products they buy through Government m