Originally published October 17 2005
Medical group takes action to prevent spread of alcohol-related diseases
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The World Medical Association's annual Assembly in Santiago, Chile resulted in the proposal of measures to minimize the worldwide effects of alcohol on health, including strict guidelines governing the marketing of alcoholic products.
Far reaching measures to help reduce the global impact of alcohol on health and society have been proposed by the World Medical Association.
They include the possible setting of a minimum legal purchase age, restricting hours or days of sale and the number of sales outlets, increasing alcohol taxes, and implementing effective measures to deal with alcohol impaired driving.
The WMA also proposes restricting the promotion, advertising and provision of alcohol to young people, work on reducing the harmful use of alcohol in the workplace, the promotion of evidence-based prevention strategies in schools, and screening patients for alcohol use disorders and at-risk drinking.
A statement approved by physicians from more than 40 countries meeting at the WMA's annual Assembly in Santiago, Chile warned: 'Regular alcohol consumption and binge drinking in adolescents can negatively affect school performance, increase participation in crime and adversely affect sexual performance and behaviour.'
It also warned that in recent years constraints on the production, mass marketing and patterns of consumption of alcohol had been weakened, resulting in the increased availability of alcohol and changes in drinking patterns across the world.
Alcohol advertising and promotion is rapidly expanding throughout the world and is increasingly sophisticated and carefully targeted, including to youth.
It is aimed to attract, influence, and recruit new generations of potential drinkers despite industry codes of self-regulation that are widely ignored and often not enforced.
The statement went on: 'Heavy drinkers and those with alcohol-related problems or alcohol dependence cause a significant share of the problems resulting from consumption.
However, in most countries, the majority of alcohol-related problems in a population are associated with harmful or hazardous drinking by non-dependent "social" drinkers, particularly when intoxicated.
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