Eurocare Updates

Over 120 people attended the Lunch Seminar organised by Eurocare in the European Parliament to discuss the harm to others as "The Cost of Alcohol: Passive drinking" on Tuesday 2nd February 2010.

In a report published on 8 January 2010, the Health Committee of the UK Parliament warns that the drinks industry and supermarkets hold more power over government alcohol policies than expert health professionals.

ICAP (The International Centre for Alcohol Policies) has published a new issue of the ICAP Periodic Review on Drinking and Culture. This issue presents abstracts of journal articles published between 2008 and 2009 and covers 9 central, eastern, and southern European countries and 8 languages.

The European Transport Safety Council published today a new report on Drink driving in commercial transport. Please click here to access it.

Summary report and presentations available. Click here

The 2009 excise duty tables concerning tax receipts from alcoholic beverages in EU Member States are now available from DG TAXUD website here

A call for applications ‘Health — 2010' has been launched within the framework of the second programme of Community action in the field of health (2008-2013).

During the Global Expert Meeting on Alcohol, a groundbreaking new study made its way to the stage. "Alcohol, Social Development and Infectious Disease”, as the study is called, links alcohol consumption, especially heavy drinking, to the risk of getting infectious diseases such as TB and pneumonia. Furthermore, it shows that alcohol consumption has an influence on the progression of TB and HIV in already infected persons, and impairs the use of preventive services by such persons.

The Vintage Project is looking to collect best practices on preventing the harmful use of alcohol. If you or anyone you know would like to help us by filling out and submitting the questionnaire at the bottom of the article, it would be highly appreciated.

Source: Forut

A recent comparison of proposed national alcohol policies in Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, and Botswana shows that the alcohol industry has assumed a significant and detrimental role in designing national alcohol policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The policy drafts point to the alcohol industry's preferred version of a national alcohol policy, which includes letting the industry regulate its own marketing activities.