Sober N Clean

New Zealanders are drinking more according to the latest figures, and that means more weekend binges and young people lured onto alcopops, says the agency promoting responsible use of alcohol.

During 2008 the total volume of alcohol available for consumption increased 3.4 percent to 486.4 million litres from 2007, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The volume of pure alcohol available per person aged 15 years and over increased 3.3 percent to 9.5 litres. It was the highest volume since 1994.

Spirits and spirit-based drinks now represent 14.3 percent of the total alcohol available for consumption, continuing a steady increase since 1996.

Consumption of spirits increased to 8 million litres, up 5.5 percent on the previous year and now accounts for 25 per cent of the total consumption of alcohol per capita.

"People are drinking more; on one level it is as simple as that, said Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC) chief executive Gerard Vaughan.

The figures on their own, if they showed people were increasing their drinking across the week and in a responsible manner, would not be a concern, but ALAC knew that wasn't the case, he said.

Other statistics showed the huge harm and cost on the police and hospital systems, he said.

With its drinking age, alcohol availability and drink-driving restrictions, New Zealand had a liberal drinking environment, he said.

While acknowledging that alcohol was an enjoyable part of New Zealand life, the big harm was from our drinking patterns. "Unfortunately New Zealanders do not drink in a sophisticated manner. We are a country that tends to save up our drinking for a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and drink large amounts."

Mr Vaughan said increase in spirit consumption was driven by the emergence of the relatively-recent ready-to-drink products, or alcopops.

That was concerning because of its packaging, high sugar, masking of the alcohol taste and high alcohol content made them attractive to younger drinkers. They were also priced to appeal.

"If your intention is to get out of it then it won't cost you that much."

ALAC had tracked community attitudes over the last five years and seen significant shifts in understanding of problems of binge drinking.

"But I think we haven't really made the impact into the binge drinking culture.

"It's taken us 100 years to firmly establish a problematic drinking culture. We need to think this is about generational change."

The Statistics NZ figures are taken from the New Zealand Customs Service, based on duty paid, and indicates how much is actually released to the market but not what is actually consumed.

Beer was still the most popular type of alcoholic beverage in New Zealand and last year there were 322.5 million litres of beer available, which makes up 66.3 percent of the total beverage available for consumption. Wine was up 2.3 percent to 94.2m litres

Meanwhile, the number of cigarettes available for consumption was up 4.3 percent, to 2.5 billion in 2008.
This increase in cigarettes contrasted with a decrease in the amount of tobacco available for consumption, which was down 3.7 percent to 870 tonnes in 2008.

At least one in five men in developed countries are at risk of abusing or becoming dependent on alcohol during their lifetimes, researchers in the United States said on Sunday.

The risk is about half that for women, who have an 8% to 10% chance of becoming dependent on alcohol. And despite the popular belief that nothing works, there is help in the form of several effective treatments, they said.

"This is a serious problem," Dr. Marc Schuckit of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California said in a telephone interview.

He said men have roughly a 15% lifetime risk for alcohol abuse, and a 10% risk for alcohol dependence.

"Once you carry one of these diagnoses regularly, you tend to cut your life short by 10 to 15 years," he said.

His findings, published in the journal Lancet, are meant to guide doctors on how to spot and treat their patients for alcohol dependence disorder.

This includes a range of problem drinking behaviours such as spending too much time drinking, having trouble stopping once started, skipping important life events to drink or recover from a binge, and setting and exceeding a self-imposed limit on the number of drinks a person plans to consume.

The definition also includes more classic signs of alcohol addiction such as withdrawal.

They said repeated heavy drinking increases the risk of a temporary bout of depression by 40%. And 80% of people who are dependent on alcohol are regular smokers. Some 40% to 60% of the risk of problem drinking can be explained by genes, and the rest by environmental factors, Schuckit said. That may explain why women have a lower lifetime risk.

"This is a cultural issue. More women than men are lifelong abstainers. A higher proportion of women than men never open themselves to the possibility of alcoholism be-cause they never or very rarely drink," Schuckit said.

He said heavy drinking raises the risk of heart disease and cancer, even in those who do not smoke. And despite perceptions that treatments do not work, he said most patients with alcohol-use disorders do well after treatment.

About 50% to 60% of men and women with alcohol dependence abstain or show substantial improvement in a year after treatment, which can include drugs such as Forest Laboratories Inc's Campral or acamprosate, naltrexone, also known as Revia and Depade, and disulfiramacamprosate or Antabuse. Schuckit said these should be used in combination with therapy aimed at helping people change their behaviours.
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source: The National Post

Adults who supply booze to other people's children without parental consent will soon be liable for a hefty fine.

Police Minister Jim Cox yesterday announced the crackdown to prevent the "horrific, unpleasant and sad" effects of underage binge drinking at private parties.

The law changes were prompted, in part, by the case of Penguin boy Taylor Forward who was supplied with vodka and fell into a campfire at a friend's party in 2005.

"Too often we hear and see the effects of young people being supplied with alcohol and left unsupervised," Mr Cox said.

"Not only can this result in direct harm from excessive alcohol consumption, it also means young people are at risk of forming binge-drinking behaviours and not learning responsible drinking."

The change means the adult supervisor at the party would take full legal responsibility for the actions of underage drinkers at the event.

That could create a scenario where invitations to underage parties could go out with parental consent forms granting children permission to drink.

"I think if invitations went out and parents were prepared to take responsibility for other under 18s, and a permission slip was put in there, that would be a great idea."

Mr Cox rejected suggestions the laws would have the effect of normalising underage drinking, but would allow parents to introduce their children to alcohol in a controlled way.

Assistant Commissioner Phil Wilkinson was confident the new legislation could be policed.

"As it stands at the moment, on private premises it is legal for underage people to drink, so this extends it and gives parents an additional level of control over what their children do," Assistant Commissioner Wilkinson said.

Taylor Forward's mother Vicki welcomed the move, which follows a 3 1/2-year fight for legislative change.

"This is not to stop everyone drinking when they are under 18 but it is about having more control and accountability to protect kids," Mrs Forward said.

State Schools Parents and Friends Associations president Jenny Branch said underage parties were still a big problem.

In 2007 the National Drug Strategy household survey found 22 per cent of teenagers over the age of 14 drank alcohol on a weekly basis.

"I have heard of cases where kids go out every weekend -- parents feel like they are losing kids to places they don't want them to be and a life they don't want their children to be in," Ms Branch said.

"Hopefully these new laws will give children and parents the opportunity to negotiate what is responsible and what is not."

Australian Hotels Association state manager Steve Old lauded the proposed crackdown.
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source: The Mercury

Teenagers die from alcohol related illness or injury more than anything else.

With that in mind the Sydney Western Area Health Service is desperatley pleading with parents to educate their teens about the risks of excessive drinking.

Sydney West Area Health Service Drug and Alcohol Network Acting Nurse Manager Cathleen Addison-Wilson said it was estimated more than 40 per cent of 16-17 year olds occasionally binge drink.

Furthermore, up to 22 per cent of boys and 18 per cent of girls aged between 12-16 years old reported drinking on a weekly basis. .

"Alcohol impacts upon an individual’s capacity to make rational choices and evidence is clear this is even more so for adolescents, placing them at further risk of harm and injury from misadventure," said Ms Addison-Wilson.

"Over recent years, we’ve seen an increase in `alcohol-pops’ – pre-mixed alcohol and soft drinks. When young people consume these drinks, which are in effect a stimulant and depressant mix, they are more likely to black out and take part in anti-social behaviour."

Ms Addison-Wilson said parents should know where their teenage children were when they out for the evening and who they were with.

"Most alcohol related issues occur when young people are returning home," she said.

Ms Addison-Wilson suggests parents make a 'contract' with their adolescent to pick them up, regardless of their level of intoxication.

"This has been shown to reduce the chance of injury, assault and anti-social behaviour," she said.

Ms Addison-Wilson said it was vital for parents to communicate with their teenager as they became more exposed to alcohol – through their mates, peers and the media.

"The attitudes and actions of teenagers are often heavily influenced by what they see and hear at home. If you choose to discuss your own alcohol use with your teenager, it is important not to glorify your own behaviour," she said.

"Be careful not to sound hypocritical. If you drink, try to avoid getting drunk in front of them."
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source: Street Corner

The middle class people over the age of 45 are now the most frequent drinkers in England, new NHS figures show.

The findings add to growing concern over middle class drinkers and the damage their habits are doing to their bodies.

Earlier this year a report by the National Audit Office, the Government watchdog, warned that 10 million Britons were now drinking to "hazardous" levels.

A survey conducted by the NHS Information Centre shows that 30 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women in the highest earning bracket admitted that they had drunk alcohol five nights or more in the previous week, twice as much as in the lowest wage bracket.

The middle aged were also much more likely than young people or thirtysomethings to drink frequently.

The highest rate was among men aged 55 to 64, 33 per cent of whom said that they had drunk five or more days out of the last seven.

Among women, 19 per cent of 65 to 74-year-olds admitted that they drank that often.

By contrast just 12 per cent of male and 5 per cent of female 16 to 24-year-olds said that they drank that frequently.

And overall 22 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women said that they had gone without alcohol for two days or less in the previous week.

While previous studies have concentrated on younger binge drinkers this is the first to suggest so starkly that middle class over 45-year-olds top the league table for frequent drinking.

The survey also found that levels of obesity have almost doubled in 14 years, from 16 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women in 1993 to 24 per cent of both sexes in 1997.

The breakdown of the figures on alcohol contained in the annual Health Survey for England report also show that almost one third of men and more than one quarter of women admit they drank excessively at least one day in the previous week.

It also discloses that few people know the recommended daily alcohol limits.

Men are advised to drink no more than three to four units a day, the equivalent of two pints of beer, and women two to three glasses of wine, the amount contained in one and a half standard glasses of wine.

Less than a third of people knew their safe limits, the study shows.

The survey also showed that while most knew that they should be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, only 14 per cent of men and 11 per went of women knew how much should be contained in a portion, the survey also found.

Dr Mark Davies, medical director of the NHS Information Centre and a practising GP, said it was of "concern" that messages of safe alcohol intake, as well as those on exercise levels and healthy eating, did not seem to be getting through to all sections of the population.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "Labour's neglect over issues like obesity and alcohol abuse will leave a terrible legacy for the next Government to try and fix" and called for urgent action on public health problems.
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source: Telegraph

The specific pathway through which binge drinking contributes to clogged arteries has been identified by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.

Alcoholic beverages contain ethanol, which is mostly converted into acetaldehyde. The Rochester team found that binge drinking-related levels of acetaldehyde make immune cells called monocyctes more likely to stick to blood vessel walls and cause inflammation that contributes to blood vessel blockage — atherosclerosis.

The study contributes to a growing body of evidence that drinking patterns have as much, or more, impact on cardiovascular disease risk than the total amount of alcohol consumed. The findings also may help efforts to develop new treatments to counter atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart attack and stroke, the researchers said.

“Factors like binge drinking have been linked to increased risk for heart disease, and the newer inflammatory model is beginning to explain how,” study leader John Cullen, an assistant professor in the department of surgery, said in a medical center news release. “One of our experiments found that acetaldehyde, at levels found in the blood after binge drinking, increased the number of monocytes that can adhere to cells lining blood vessels by 700 percent.”

The study was published in the current issue of the journal Atherosclerosis.

Binge drinking means having five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in two hours, according to the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Some studies have suggested that an irregular pattern of heavy drinking increases the risk of heart attack about two-fold.

An estimated 65 percent of Americans drink alcohol, and 15 percent reporting binge patterns, the researchers said.
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source: health.com

A group that spent 10 months reviewing Wyoming's alcohol laws advocates increasing state alcohol taxes and using the money to fund programs aimed at cutting underage and binge drinking.

The Wyoming Prevention Framework Communities group also recommended to state lawmakers that the state require mandatory training for alcohol servers and ban sales to drunk people.

The group, which is made up of representatives from all 23 Wyoming counties and the Wind River Indian Reservation, released its report Thursday.

Binge and underage drinking are two of the state's top health issues, according to Ernie Johnson, a University of Wyoming criminal justice instructor who managed the review effort.

"We have minimized the concerns for too long," he said.

The report recommends "substantially" increasing the tax on all alcohol products to equal the national average, with top priority going to a beer tax hike. Beer in Wyoming is now taxed at 2 cents a gallon - the lowest in the nation. The national average is 26 cents a gallon.

The group acknowledged that the tax hike is the most controversial recommendation in the report.

"It also has the greatest potential for generating and providing much-needed resources for Wyoming communities," the report states.

In advocating for the higher tax, the report notes that Wyoming's current tax rate hasn't changed since it was set in 1935.

The report recommends creating a system for providing local governments with the tax money in order to address binge and underage drinking. However, there wasn't consensus among the review group on the best way to achieve those ends.

Mike Moser, executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association, opposed raising alcohol taxes when he met with the group in May. Doing so would punish responsible drinkers along with people who abuse alcohol, he told the group.

The report suggests mandatory server and owner training as ways to cut down on the sale of alcohol to underage drinkers and people who have already had too much to drink.

Liquor retailers, working with the state's Liquor Distribution Division, already offer a training program on serving alcohol responsibly. However, Wyoming law does not require servers, managers or owners to participate.

The report offered statistics showing that most of the citations and infractions handed out during alcohol stings went to people who hadn't received server training.

The review group also recommended legislation that would ban alcohol sales to drunk people and prohibit drink specials that promote excessive drinking. The report cited research showing such laws can reduce alcohol-related problems, like car crashes, if they are adequately enforced.

Wyoming is one of three states that doesn't have a law prohibiting alcohol sales to drunk people.
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source: Billings Gazette