Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity—a summary of the third edition

Abstract

Background and AimsThis article summarizes the findings and conclusions of the third edition of Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity. The latest revision of this book is part of a series of monographs designed to provide a critical review of the scientific evidence related to alcohol control policy from a public health perspective.DesignA narrative summary of the contents of the book according to five major issues.FindingsAn extensive amount of epidemiological evidence shows that alcohol is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, disability and death in high‐, middle‐ and low‐income countries. Trends in alcohol products and marketing are described, indicating that a large part of the global industry has been consolidated into a small number of transnational corporations that are expanding their operations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The main part of the book is devoted to a review of strategies and interventions designed to prevent or minimize alcohol‐related harm. Overall, the most effective strategies to protect public health are taxation that decreases affordability and restrictions on the physical availability of alcohol. A total ban on alcohol marketing is also an effective strategy to reduce consumption. In addition, drink‐driving counter‐measures, brief interventions with at‐risk drinkers and treatment of drinkers with alcohol dependence are effective in preventing harm in high‐risk contexts and groups of hazardous drinkers.ConclusionAlcohol policy is often the product of competing interests, values and ideologies, with the evidence suggesting that the conflicting interests between profit and health mean that working in partnership with the alcohol industry is likely to lead to ineffective policy. Opportunities for implementation of evidence‐based alcohol policies that better serve the public good are clearer than ever before as a result of accumulating knowledge on which strategies work best.

Reducing alcohol use through alcohol control policies in the general population and population subgroups: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Our systematic review shows that, consistent with prior research, 8 , 9 , 10 alcohol control policies that raise alcohol prices and reduce the temporal availability of alcoholic beverages lead to a reduction in overall alcohol consumption, with some differential effects identified across sociodemographic groups. Specifically, we found that doubling alcohol excise taxes or introducing a MUP of about Int$ 0.90 per 10 g of pure alcohol results in an average 10% decrease in the level of alcohol consumption within the same year, with potentially larger reductions in low-income compared to more affluent groups.…”

“…5 Three policies, the so-called “best buys”, stand out in not only being the most cost-effective policies, but also relatively easy to implement: increasing alcohol prices through taxation or minimum pricing, restricting the temporal and spatial availability of alcoholic beverages, and bans and restrictions of alcohol marketing. 6 , 7 , 8 However, two key questions have not yet been addressed in prior reviews: First, a quantification of their impact on consumption in real-world settings is pending, although their effectiveness, particularly in reducing alcohol-attributable harm, has been well established (for the most recent systematic reviews, see 9 , 10 , 11 ). Second, while systematic differences in both the drinking patterns and the related harms have been observed across both SES 12 , 13 and racial and ethnic groups, 14 , 15 there has been minimal investigation into whether these policies can mitigate against growing inequalities in the alcohol-attributable disease burden through differential effects on alcohol use.…”

The role of deprivation and alcohol availability in shaping trends in violent crime

“…Our findings suggest a need to identify ways in which policy can tackle inequalities in alcohol-attributable harm (Katikireddi et al, 2017). The evidence base suggests that reducing alcohol availability is a promising cost-effective policy initiative to reduce alcohol-related harm, including violence (Babor, 2010; Babor et al, 2010; Foster et al, 2017; WHO, 2009a, 2009b), yet initiatives for addressing the unequal distribution of such harm remain rare. It is important that we understand the distribution of such harms by area deprivation to assist with this endeavour, because those from more deprived areas not only suffer disproportionately from the harm associated with alcohol consumption (Mäkelä and Paljärvi, 2008; Sadler et al, 2017), but may also be less likely to object in the licensing process owing to barriers such as access to services and education.…”

Designing and implementing an experimental survey on knowledge and perceptions about alcohol warning labels

“…The European Union is the region with the highest level of alcohol consumption with seven out of the 10 countries with the highest alcohol consumption being member states (WHO Global Health Observatory, 2019 ). To reduce alcohol‐related harm, different policy options have been proposed, with pricing policies, availability and marketing restrictions usually considered as most effective and cost‐effective (Babor et al., 2022 ; Chisholm et al., 2018 ).…”