A warning from the UK: Quarter of a million more deaths due to alcohol, if nothing changes

Most recently, the WHO (World Health Organization) has published statistics showing the direct effect of alcohol on the liver. The WHO has found that since 1986 the amount of deaths in the UK related to liver cirrhosis have more than doubled.

While in some countries with similar culture, drinking styles and genetic background, liver disease has stayed the same over the past 20 year, in the UK it has gone up from 4.9 per 100,000 in 1986 to 11.4 in 2008.

This is a completely opposite trend to the one observed in France where liver diseases has dropped a half in the same period. France has introduced a series of measures to curb its problems related to alcohol consumption. As the only country in the EU it has mandatory health warning label on containers and back in 2001 it has introduced the most comprehensive so far regulation of alcohol marketing.

A study recently published in the Lancet magazine on projection of alcohol deaths in the UK, has found that alarming 250,000 more lives will be lost, if the current trend does not change.

Alcohol policy and advocacy groups throughout the UK have been calling on their government to take a tougher stand towards alcohol regulation laws:

‘Just as the government would expect us to treat our patients with effective medicines, we expect the government to take much stronger action to protect people from alcohol-related harm, when will that happen?' commented Sir Richard Thompson, President of the Royal College of Physicians

The current administration in the United Kingdom has put forward a measure saying that there must be a 2% inflation duty on alcohol and to increase duties on beers that are over 7.5% in strength. For a nation that had a strong drinking culture, many saw these initial measures as a step in the right direction. However, policy groups believe more should be done to effectively address the increasing health problems and costs that alcohol abuse is having on the society and public services.

This can prove particularly challenging now, when the UK Government has ‘invited' the alcohol industry to develop strategies to reduce alcohol misuse. Even the House of Commons Health Committee Report on Alcohol stated disbelief about how close the alcohol industry and creation of alcohol policy were related.

Effective alcohol polices have three components, price (affordability), place of sale (availability) and promotions. Incorporate the spin of the marketing industry and you have a fourth component, the marketability of the alcohol (product). The more limits these ‘four Ps' are put under, the healthier and safer society will be.