Home > Issues to Watch > April 2010
This is a monthly discussion of "issues to watch" in the field of alcohol policy. April 2010
This month’s Issues to Watch article will briefly highlight some interesting trends in the alcohol policy field over the last year (April 2009 – March 2010) and review some accomplishments of the Alcohol Policy Network. Readers can also note that beginning April 2010, the Alcohol Policy Network, along with three other health promotion resource centres, will be funded through the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Staff of the Alcohol Policy Network are eager to start a new year with the OAHPP and are excited to continue to monitor, research, and report on emerging trends in the field of alcohol policy. April Statistics Canada reported that alcohol sales for the year ending March 31, 2008 were up from the previous year. Beer, liquor stores and agencies sold over $18 billion worth of alcohol beverages. Beer continues to be the number one sales item, however it is losing ground to other beverages, most notably red wine. May The month of May saw the implementation of new Impaired Driving Laws in Ontario. The new laws announced through the Ontario Ministry of Transportation clarify that as of May 1, 2009, drivers with a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.05 to 0.08, are now subject to the following penalties:
The previous law saw that drivers only received a 12-hour driver's licence suspension under these same conditions — no matter how many times they were caught. May also marked APN’s first teleconference of the new fiscal year titled Alcohol and Violence: Raising the Bar. Dr. Kate Graham of the University of Western Ontario discussed strategies to control violence and aggression in and around bars, pubs, and nightclubs. June Mr. Ed Fast, Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, tabled in the House of Commons the Committee’s report on alcohol-impaired driving. The report, entitled Ending Alcohol-Impaired Driving: A Common Approach, makes 10 recommendations to improve efforts to eliminate alcohol-impaired driving from Canadian roads. The review included stricter sanctions on impaired driving and the imposition of Random Breath Testing (RBT). July July of 2009 marked a marked rise of alcohol-related harm in the UK. The Guardian reported that UK doctors were proposing to ban all alcohol ads and recommended a minimum price floor on all alcohol beverage units. Additionally, The Lancet released a series on alcohol and global health with three reports on alcohol control polices. The reports were titled:
August The Globe and Mail reported on a new study coming out of Montreal and published in Cancer Detection and Prevention, which links alcohol to cancer. The researchers stated that the “heavier drinkers have highest risk”. To read more about this story you can access Andre Picard’s article in the Globe and Mail. September The APN marked its second teleconference of the fiscal year titled Trends in Alcohol Marketing: Is it still possible to regulate alcohol marketing effectively? The call was facilitated by Avalon de Bruijn of the European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Advertising (EUCAM). Ms. De Bruin’s presentation discussed:
To review this presentation you can access the presentation slides and the additional reading material on our website. October “Despite H1N1 re-deployment, the field of alcohol policy was bombarded with international news headlines of alcohol advertising’s impact. The October edition of our Issues to Watch touched on the recent unregulated trend of alcohol promotion on social networking websites such as Facebook. Additionally, the October-released Alcohol in the News reported that the current Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, endorsed a plan to ban alcohol advertising and limit alcohol sales by location and time-of-day policies. This is due to Russia’s rising alcohol-related costs. In the Netherlands there was news from various perspectives regarding alcohol advertising; the Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport rejected a move to label alcoholic energy drinks on the basis that “There is no indication that drinking alcoholic energy drinks is an extensive problem, at this moment”. Meanwhile, the European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing (EUCAM) announced its second annual conference on alcohol marketing. Meanwhile, in Brazil prosecutors and organizers of the 2014 FIFA World Cup are battling the international soccer federation to ban alcohol sales in soccer stadiums during the soccer tournament. Finally, Massachusetts law makers were reviewing a bill that would prohibit alcohol advertising on all state-owned property including the transit system. November November saw the release of the 2009 edition of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS) through the Centre for Addition and Mental Health (CAMH). The report is released every two years and examines broad areas of health and well-being among Ontario high school students. Dr. Robert Mann of CAMH indicated that public health can take away some quick wins from this year’s OSDHUS report, highlighting that teen alcohol consumption has dropped since 1999. However, Mann warns that the drinking rates have reached a plateau since the 2007 report, and that approximately 25% of teens are drinking alcohol and/or smoking tobacco. The 2009 survey also charted new data, which included:
For more information on the OSDHUS, please visit the CAMH website. December December 2009 saw the APN’s third teleconference of this active year titled Alcohol Policies: Reflection on Public Perceptions, Science and Politics. Dr. Norman Giesbrecht of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health discussed four overarching themes:
If you would like to obtain a copy of the slides from the presentation we request that you contact the Alcohol Policy Network directly. January TVO’s Steve Paikin took note when alcohol was identified by the World Health Organization as the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. The television show, The Agenda, which Paikin moderates, discussed alcohol as the next big target on public health’s radar, drawing links from tobacco. February In December 2009, the provincial government recruited two banks to review Provincial Crown Assets, including the LCBO. In February, this issue gained momentum and attention within the public health field. A number of public health stakeholders offered their insights on this issue to senior provincial officials. To review the stakeholder responses we invite you to visit the respective organizations' websites or you can read the documents by accessing the links below:
February also saw the release of APN’s research paper Alcohol and Community-based Violence. The APN focused their research on the growing link between alcohol and violence. A systematic review incorporating journal articles from 1999 – 2009 were used to accomplish this. The authors reviewed links of violence and alcohol as they related to over 12 different variables. The paper detailed each variable as they presented unique challenges to policy professionals. Finally, the paper discussed six different possible strategies and 21 recommendations that emerge from a healthy public policy context, which include the Four Pillars of Substance Misuse — prevention, treatment, harms reduction, and enforcement — coupled with concepts introduced in the Ottawa Charter. To order a hard copy of the report, please fill out our online publication order form. March The month of March was book-ended with two interesting and timely APN events. The Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity forum completed its seventh consecutive year. The theme of the day was Alcohol Policy: Time to Act! Current Research, Policy, and Practical Applications to Address Alcohol-related harm. The day's speakers included: Dr. Thomas Babor of the University of Connecticut, and author of the landmark book on which the forum series was based; Dr. Maristela Monteiro of the Pan American Health Organization, a division of the World Health Organization; Dr. Norman Giesbrecht of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; Penny Nelligan of the Ministry of Health Promotion; Victoria Van Gilst of Niagara Region Public Health; Susan Shepherd of Toronto Public Health; Nancy Langdon of Ottawa Public Health; Andrew Murie of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada; and Denise DePape of the BC Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport. The event attracted nearly 110 participants, listening, discussing, and creating action steps in regards to alcohol policy in the province of Ontario. The Alcohol Workgroup of the Ontario Public Health Association analyzed the recommendations and ideas put forth from the day to inform their annual action plans. View their webpage to read updates on the Workgroup’s progress. Click on the following link for details on 2010 release of Dr. Barbor's book Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity – Research and Public Policy; 2nd Edition. Lastly, the end of March saw APN’s final teleconference of the year, as Robert Solomon of the University of Western Ontario discussed The Case for Random Breath Testing (RBT) in Canada: Reviewing the Evidence and Challenges. As described in the June section of this article, the report Ending Alcohol-Impaired Driving: A Common Approach recommended RBT as an effective population health initiative. Capitalizing on this information, Professor Solomon’s presentation outlined Canada’s recent impaired driving record, its charge and conviction rates, and the persistence of impaired driving. Solomon then examined the impact that comprehensive RBT programs have had in comparable countries and reviewed the potential challenges to such legislation in Canada, including whether it would be upheld under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
We wish to thank our former funding agency – the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion – for their support for alcohol policy research and knowledge transfer over the past several years. We are excited for what the next year will bring in the field of alcohol policy! Stay tuned to www.apolnet.ca and our listserv for the latest information and discussion. |