Committee briefing: Health

---

ePolitix.com reports on Thursday's health committee session, which addresses the health implications of alcohol.

Witnesses
Professor Ian Gilmore, president, Royal College of Physicians
Dr Peter Anderson, public health consultant
Professor Martin Plant, University of Western England
Dr James Nicholls, Bath Spa University
Dr James Kneale, University College London

The government must address the minimum unit price of alcohol to reduce the dangers to public health, according to a leading medical expert.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, has suggested that a change to the minimum price unit would have "several real advantages".

He told MPs at a health committee session on alcohol that the alteration does not impact on the average price of beer, but "really hits heavy discounting of bulk buying in supermarkets".

Gilmore also suggested that as many as 40,000 drinkers are dying every year because the government's alcohol strategy is not as effective as it could be.

Addressing the Home Office's 24-hour drinking laws, he said: "It was in my view unfortunate that the plan coincided with a change in licensing laws which made it easier for places to stay open longer, and made it more difficult to turn down applications for licences, with no need to take public health into account.

"In that respect, I think government strategy has not worked."

Other recommendations included using a separate till for alcohol purchasing in supermarkets and a stronger focus on public health.

He welcomed the fact that the government is looking harder at alcohol costs.

Gilmore told the committee: "Price in my mind is number one and availability is the second."

The impact of only having alcohol available in certain stores and supermarkets in Scotland should also be looked at, Gilmore stated.

Fellow committee witness, public health consultant Dr Peter Anderson also expressed his disappointment with the government's approach to alcohol.

He gave the government's strategy on alcohol a mark of one-out-of-ten, while Gilmore added that it "could do much better".

Anderson told the committee: "Government policy has to a certain extent allowed alcohol to become more accessible."

There has been an increase in availability of alcohol through licensed outlets, not just in the number, but also in the size of very big clubs and bars, he said.

He added: "Some of the big supermarket chains do sell alcohol at an undercut price which contributes to the problem. If the price of alcohol goes down, the number of consumption and harm goes up."

In order to take steps to reduce the harm from alcohol, Anderson suggested readdressing the tax structure on alcohol and more investment in family doctors to help those most at risk from drinking.

The government should also restrict the marketing of alcohol, he said.

It should be modelled on a law that dictates a ban of advertising on television, Anderson argued.

And the law should be "very restrictive" and prevent the alcohol industry from using "glamour and sex" to sell their products.

The witnesses highlighted parallels between advertising for alcohol and the tobacco industry. Anderson told the committee that both industries are trying to "counteract" negative concerns about health.

"Marketing has a major impact on this," he stated.

"Not just advertising, but where products are placed in supermarkets and packaging. The more marketing there is the more the consumption and the greater the harm."

There was also a suggestion that the alcohol industry's offer to fund educational campaigns on the dangers of excessive alcohol can "backfire".

The medical professionals stated that the campaigns could leave viewers with a "favourable" impression of the industry, according to previous research.

Gilmore also brought up the fact that alcohol companies are able to write-off advertising as reasonable expenses.

This tax relief for advertising should be stopped, he stated, and consideration should also be given to a watershed for alcohol advertising.

On the health implications of alcohol, it was proposed that almost three million people in the UK are alcohol-dependant.

Gilmore stated: "It is not just a problem of young people.

"The spotlight has been on young people. But it really goes right across the spectrum."

And he disputed the Office for National Statistics figures that cite just 8,000 deaths from alcohol. Gilmore explained that this was based on the cause of death being listed as alcohol-related on the death certificate.

In fact, figures for alcohol-related deaths should be estimated between 30,000-40,000, he said.

This compares with 80,000 tobacco-related deaths and 30,000 obesity-related deaths.

He suggested that there was still a "stigma" involved in insinuating a person's death was related to alcohol.

On units of alcohol, Gilmore said measures are difficult to quantify because "glasses are getting bigger and drinks are getting stronger".

And because of the variety in genetics, it is difficult to say how much alcohol is dangerous for an individual person.

"We are not able to individualise risk yet," Gilmore said.

According to mid-1990s government recommendations, men should limit themselves to 3-4 drinks a day and women to 2-3.

But Anderson stated: "The more you drink the more you risk."

"There is no safer level – there is a lower risk of harm," he explained.

Dr Richard Taylor (Ind, Wyre Forest) inquired whether media coverage of binge drinking was "eclipsing" the real health problems involving alcohol.

Gilmore replied: "The biggest change in drinking habits in this country is buying heavily discounted alcohol from supermarkets and drinking relatively quietly at home.

"Binge drinking shouldn't divert us from the evidence that there is a lot going on behind closed doors."

He said there were around 2.9 million alcohol-dependent people in the country and that dependency is a form of alcoholism.

The more you drink as a teenager the more likely you are to become alcohol dependent as an adult, Anderson added.

Moving to the second session of the committee, Professor Martin Plant from the University of Western England explained that binge drinking is a "very old disease".

What has changed recently is that consumption in most western countries has dropped while in Britain it has gone up, he said.

"The bad news is that all the health indicators are still going up alarmingly," he said.

But Dr James Kneale, from University College London, warned against viewing drinking as simply a problem of public order.

Concern about alcohol is often associated with unrest, he explained.

He proposed looking to Scottish measures to improve attitudes towards alcohol, citing the move to end three-for-two offers.