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Stockholm (pte011/04.02.2005/10:30) - Alcohol is the cause of almost as many deaths and disabilities worldwide as smoking or high blood pressure, researchers say. According to an international team of scientists writing in the Lancet, alcohol is a factor in around 60 different diseases. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, the researchers found that four per cent of global diseases are attributable to alcohol, compared to 4.1 per cent to tobacco and 4.4 per cent to high blood pressure. The scientists also claim that if the UK increases alcohol prices, there would be fewer deaths. They were particularly critical of the UK's decision to introduce legislation allowing 24-hour drinking from later this year, saying that it had not implemented effective alcohol control policies.
The study was led by Robin Room, of the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University http://www.su.se . "The evidence we have is that if you increase the drinking hours then you get more trouble with alcohol," he said. According to Room, the potential effects on health were not taken into account when changes to licensing laws were considered. "It's a very short-sighted approach," he added.
The report studied diseases including cancer of the mouth, liver and breast, heart disease and stroke, and cirrhosis, which can all be caused by alcohol. It also looked at the role of alcohol in car accidents, drownings, falls and poisonings, as it is linked to a proportion of self-inflicted injuries and murders. The researchers estimate that increasing the price of alcohol by ten per cent would produce a seven per cent drop in deaths from cirrhosis of the liver in mean and an 8.3 per cent drop in deaths in women. Reducing the hours that pubs and shops can sell alcohol would also affect rates of alcohol-related harm, the researchers said.
"There has been very little relevant research in this country, so we don't know why we drink the way we do and how we could change the culture," said Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Royal College of Physician's alcohol committee. "The health impact of alcohol has to be addressed by the government. It's easier to demonise the yobs - the "other people". But 25 per cent of the population are drinking at a potentially hazardous level. And three million are dependent on alcohol," he added. However, others were not as impressed by the research. "There are huge flaws in this theory," said Mark Hastings, of the British Beer and Pub association. "No one is saying let's double the price of food to tackle obesity."
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