New Resources on Alcohol Policy
Alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity in the United States (after smoking and obesity), and accounts for 85,000 deaths per year at a cost of $185 billion. Its prevalence is twice as high in men as it is in women. Alcoholism is responsible for:
- 32% of cases of liver cirrhosis;
- 29% of oesophageal cancer;
- 25% of liver cancers;
- 24% of homicides;
- 20% of motor vehicle accidents;
- 19% of mouth and oropharyngeal cancers; and
- 11% of suicides.
At a May 2010 conference in New York City, a group of researchers and public health professionals met to discuss ways that New York City could develop policies to reduce the burden of alcohol on the city’s health. In this report, Corporations and Health Watch posts some of the presentations from that meeting.
Nick Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at Hunter College, began the conference with “Moving Upstream: Addressing the Structural Influences of Alcohol Policy on Public Health.” In this presentation, Dr. Freudenberg explored the range of interventions available to reduce problem alcohol use, and encouraged New York City and other places to assess the balance of their portfolio of alcohol interventions (including cost, risk, interval for expected payoff, and metrics that might assess these outcomes). Michael Sparks of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) focused his talk on alcohol outlet density and state and local efforts to reduce density in a presentation called, “Drinking Solutions: Reducing the Health Impact of Alcohol Use.” David Jernigan, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Executive Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY), discussed the role of alcohol marketing in youth alcohol consumption, the poor ability of the alcohol industry to regulate its own marketing to youth, and recent findings from CAMY studies regarding youth exposure to alcohol advertising. He described several policy options to reduce alcohol advertising to youth in a presentation entitled, “Alcohol Advertising and Public Health.”
Nick Freudenberg’s Moving Upstream: Addressing the Structural Influences of Alcohol Policy on Public Health [click here to view]
Michael Sparks’s Drinking Solutions: Reducing the Health Impact of Alcohol Use [click here to view]
David Jernigan’s Alcohol Advertising and Public Health [click here to view]
Posted June 2010
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