New Alliance Aims to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm in Europe and Central Asia

Alcohol is a major risk factor for disability and plays a key role in the development of more than 200 chronic diseases. It also contributes to injuries, mental disorders, crime and other social problems.

To combat alcohol-related illness, injury and death, the European Health Alliance on Alcohol was launched at the European Association for the Study of the Liver Congress in Amsterdam. It brings together health organisations and experts to promote evidence-based decisions, inform the public and implement effective policies to protect health.

Unnoticed consequences

The alliance pays special attention to the consequences of alcohol consumption that often remain out of sight.

“Alcohol is linked to more than 200 diseases, from cirrhosis of the liver to cancer and cardiovascular disease,” says Alexander Krag, head of the European Association for the Study of the Liver. “Yet the threat it poses is often overlooked. Alcohol is the leading cause of liver death in Europe. It also causes more than 70,000 cancer deaths each year. This alliance will aim to provide people with the facts and help them make informed choices.”

According to experts, it is not only people with alcoholism who are at risk of developing cancer. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption, but not everyone knows this. For example, many women are not aware that alcohol is one of the key risk factors for breast cancer.

The alliance aims to highlight less obvious links – between alcohol and cardiovascular disease, suicide, fetal developmental disorders, and sleep and mental health problems.

Protection of children and young people

One of the Alliance’s priorities is to protect children and adolescents from the effects of alcohol. Vulnerability begins in the womb and continues with family violence, neglect and early exposure to alcohol in childhood and adolescence. In the European Region, one in four deaths in the 19-24 age group is alcohol-related.

Despite this, children and young people continue to be exposed to aggressive marketing, including due to inadequate regulation in this area. According to experts, protecting children should include a complete abstinence from alcohol consumption during pregnancy, reducing its overall consumption in society, stricter regulation of advertising and a review of social norms.

Harm from alcohol is not inevitable and should not be seen as a personal failure, says Frank Murray, spokesman for the European Association for the Study of the Liver. It is a tragic result of the lack of effective, evidence-based policy and the alcohol industry's outsized influence on public health, he says.

Concrete actions – tangible results

The Alliance intends to strengthen the involvement of the medical community in the formation of alcohol policy at all levels. Although measures to reduce harm from alcohol have long been known, they are poorly implemented in practice. Such measures include increasing taxes, restricting advertising and reducing the availability of alcohol.

Lithuania's experience shows that decisive policies can produce quick and tangible results: in 2016–2019, the country introduced a set of restrictions that led to a significant reduction in alcohol consumption, saving thousands of lives and reducing the incidence of disease.

“A new WHO study shows that measures such as increasing excise taxes and restricting marketing can yield results in less than a year,” says Gauden Galea, an expert at the WHO European Office for Noncommunicable Diseases and Innovation. “This means that they are entirely feasible within a single political term.”

The role of health workers

Because doctors, nurses and other professionals are often the first to see the effects of alcohol abuse, the alliance advocates for an expanded role in prevention. This includes screening for dangerous levels of consumption and providing brief counselling as part of medical appointments. Discussions about alcohol should become the norm in the health care system, experts say.

“As a general practitioner, I see every day the harm alcohol causes to individuals, their families and entire communities,” says Margarida Santos from Portugal. “We, as health workers, have a responsibility to talk to patients about this and to dispel harmful myths. But medical measures alone are not enough – we need effective public policies and a change in public awareness.”