How the alcohol industry relies on harmful use of alcohol and works to protect its profits |
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| Authors: | Sally Casswell Sarah Callinan Surasak Chaiyasong Pham Viet Cuong Elena Kazantseva Tsogzolmaa Bayandorj Taisia Huckle Karl Parker Renee Railton Martin Wall |
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| Affiliation: | 1. SHORE and Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand;2. Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Department of Public Health, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia;3. Social Pharmacy Research Unit, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University, Health Promotion Policy Research Center, International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand;4. Center for Injury Policy and Prevention Research, Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam;5. Public Health, Research, Education and External Affairs Department, National Center of Mental Health of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia |
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| Abstract: | The alcohol industry have attempted to position themselves as collaborators in alcohol policy making as a way of influencing policies away from a focus on the drivers of the harmful use of alcohol (marketing, over availability and affordability). Their framings of alcohol consumption and harms allow them to argue for ineffective measures, largely targeting heavier consumers, and against population wide measures as the latter will affect moderate drinkers. The goal of their public relations organisations is to ‘promote responsible drinking’. However, analysis of data collected in the International Alcohol Control study and used to estimate how much heavier drinking occasions contribute to the alcohol market in five different countries shows the alcohol industry's reliance on the harmful use of alcohol. In higher income countries heavier drinking occasions make up approximately 50% of sales and in middle income countries it is closer to two‐thirds. It is this reliance on the harmful use of alcohol which underpins the conflicting interests between the transnational alcohol corporations and public health and which militates against their involvement in the alcohol policy arena. [Caswell S, Callinan S, Chaiyasong S, Cuong PV, Kazantseva E, Bayandorj T, Huckle T, Parker K, Railton R, Wall M. How the alcohol industry relies on harmful use of alcohol and works to protect its profits. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:661–664] |
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| Keywords: | alcohol policy alcohol industry harmful use alcohol |
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