Sobering statistics: new facts about alcohol consumption

On Thursday morning, in the first of three sessions presenting the results of new research on alcohol consumption, Robert Mann of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health made a strong case for Ontario’s adoption of effective, evidence-based alcohol policies.

He began with an informal survey of the alcohol-related “news” that’s disseminated by the media, and the important information that isn’t.

In the news, we hear (once again) about the possible sale of the LCBO to the private sector, about extended hours for sporting events and arts festivals, and about one political figure or another who favours cheap, “buck-a-beer” prices.

What we don’t hear about is the fact that the harmful use of alcohol is the third leading risk factor for premature death and disabilities in the world – and in high-income economies such as ours, it is the second leading risk factor.

Here’s more of what we don’t hear, and what you might not know:

• About 25 per cent of students in grades 7 to 12 reported binge drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion) at least once during the past month, in 2009. That’s about 250,000 Ontario students who, by the WHO’s definition, are drinking hazardously and harmfully, with potential long-term consequences.
   
• A full fifty per cent of grade 12 students reported binge drinking in the past year.
   
• Roughly 34,000 Ontario students (18 per cent) reported drinking and driving within the past year, which is especially troubling, given that in this era of graduated licences, their legal limit is 0 per cent. (Drinking and driving, though is way down. So is smoking among teenagers.)
  
• The basic equation for alcohol consumption looks like this:
  
  Increased availability of alcohol = increased consumption = increased morbidity and mortality
   
• Best practices for reducing the harmful use of alcohol include having a government monopoly on the sale of alcohol (the privatization of alcohol sales in Alberta is an example of what not to do), and restricting the hours of sale, and the density of outlets within a given area. Two things to keep in mind when talk of privatizing the LCBO and selling beer and wine in corner stores next rears its head.



The subtitle should read:  Keep drinking.We'll get you there sooner.



In his presentation, Ben Rempel of OPHA illustrated the perils of unregulated alcoholic-beverage advertising in Canada. Rempel and his colleagues are putting finishing touches on a research report on the subject for Health Canada; it contains 14 recommendations and is slated for release later this year. With only voluntary guidelines in place, violations of those guidelines are rampant. These include ads that link alcohol, usually beer, with sexual activity and prowess (like the one with the grammatically horrific tagline “less limits is more fun”), and are clearly aimed at teenagers.

And here, as with virtually every other aspect of modern life, the Internet has a role to play. Ads that could never last on television enjoy a robust cyberlife on YouTube and similar sites.

OAHPP’s Carly Heung presented research on alcohol and community-based violence among young people in the “late-night economy,” which includes bars and nightclubs. She identified the ultimate challenge in reducing this type of violence: “we have to change public attitudes around the acceptability of intoxication.”

Statistics show that Canadians’ consumption of alcohol is on the rise. In the absence of strong, evidence-based alcohol policies – including those aimed at reducing “high-risk drinking” – and strictly enforced regulations on the advertising of alcohol, the harmful individual and societal effects of alcohol can only rise as well. Reason enough, say today’s presenters, for decisive action on both fronts.