London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

European commissioners will miss a valuable opportunity to improve the health of their fellow citizens if they give in to pressure from the alcohol industry and vote not to adopt a European alcohol strategy.

Martin McKee, Professor of European Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has written an editorial in the British Medical Journal calling for commissioners to stand firm, and to adopt the draft strategy on alcohol when they meet at the end of this month, amid evidence that some elements of the alcohol industry have been engaged in a massive and highly effective campaign to derail it.

Alcohol-related disease accounts for almost 8% of the overall burden of disease in Europe and alcohol-attributable disease, injury and violence cost the health, welfare, employment and criminal justice sectors £84bn a year, including £40bn in lost production. The single European market has made the problem worse. Professor McKee details how countries such as Sweden and Finland had had longstanding stringent controls on alcohol sales that restricted access to low cost alcohol, but were forced to dismantle much of their alcohol-control policies when they joined the EU in 1995, with catastrophic consequences; over the next decade, death rates from cirrhosis in Finland rose by 50%.

A report commissioned by the trade organisation, The Brewers of Europe, has argued that there is no need for Europe-wide action. It was written by the Weinberg Group, an American company previously involved in the tobacco industry's campaign to dispute evidence on the harmful effects of passive smoking, and the chemical industry to challenge evidence on the dangers of substances such as agent orange. Unsurprisingly, the report concludes that there is insufficient evidence that alcohol is as harmful as it is alleged or that preventive measures are effective.

Professor McKee writes: 'It [the report by The Brewers of Europe] concludes that "there is not enough evidence to substantiate a link between alcohol advertising and consumption", which raises the question of why the industry spends so much money promoting its products, and that "violence is a subjective term which is fairly nebulous and elastic", a view unlikely to be shared by those scarred by bottles wielded by drunks'.

He continues: 'The arguments used by the tobacco industry to this effect were discredited long ago and now few informed commentators take seriously what it says. Unfortunately, the alcohol industry seems to be going down the same path. European commissioners will miss a valuable opportunity to improve the health of their fellow citizens if they give in to the alcohol industry's campaign'.

BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39003.629606.BE