Full title: GAPA Statement of Concern - The international public health community responds to the global alcohol producers' attempts to influence the WHO global strategy on the harmful use of alcohol

Author: GAPA

On October 8th 2012, thirteen of world’s largest alcohol producers issued a set of commitments to reduce the harmful use of alcohol worldwide, ostensibly in support of the World Health Organization’s 2010 Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol.

The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA), as an independent coalition of public health professionals, health scientists and NGO representatives, submitted this public Statement of Concern to the WHO Secretariat in response to the activities of the global alcohol producers. Discussions on industry involvement at the AMPHORA project final conference have contributed to this document.

Author: Pekka Sulkunen (University of Helsinki)

In the introduction to the thematic issue Pekka Sulkunen argues for the relevance of integrating the social sciences into the addiction debate. He proposes the concept of 'geography' to overcome the difficulties in using 'national cultures' as a point of reference in comparative studies not only in the addiction field.

Author: The Lancet

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) is the largest ever systematic effort to describe the global distribution and causes of a wide array of major diseases, injuries, and health risk factors. It consists of seven articles, each containing a wealth of data on different aspects of the study.

According to this study, in 2010, tobacco smoking was the world’s second and alcohol the world’s third most important risk factor for disability adjusted life years (a composite measure of years lived with disability and years of life lost due to premature death), after high blood pressure. Alcohol moved up from 6th place in 1990, and tobacco from 3rd place. Drug use clocked in as 19th out of 20 risk factors in 2010, and did not make the top 20 in 1990.

Check here the complete list of articles of GBD 2010.

The first in a series of papers commissioned by Addiction which attempt to estimate the problems of 'addiction' globally and in different geographical regions.

Such estimates are available, but there is a need to collate and evaluate these to arrive at the best available synthetic figures. 

Authors: University of Stirling, Alcohol Health Alliance UK and British Liver Trust

‘Health First: An evidence-based alcohol strategy for the UK’ sets out for the first time a series of no-nonsense recommendations to tackle the harm caused by excess drinking across the UK. It calls for the UK Government to prioritise Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP), amongst a set of key policies aimed at curbing the nation's drink problem. The strategy was developed by a group of experts independent from government and the alcohol industry under the auspices of the Alcohol Health Alliance.
Although the strategy was developed for the UK, it contains evidence and policy arguments which will be of interest to all researchers, advocates and policymakers across Europe who are seeking to address the harms of alcohol.