Feature in Science Magazine on David Nutt - reducing alcohol-related harm through sound politics, evidence-based policy and the potential of a synthetic substitute for alcohol.

Authors: Martin Blachier, Henri Leleu, Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, Dominique-Charles Valla, Françoise Roudot-Thoraval

To survey the burden of liver disease in Europe and its causes 260 epidemiological studies published in the last five years were reviewed.

The incidence and prevalence of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer are key to understand the burden of liver disease. They represent the end-stage of liver pathology and thus are indicative of the associated mortality. About 0.1% of Hungarian males will die of cirrhosis every year compared with 0.001% of Greek females. WHO estimate that liver cancer is responsible for around 47,000 deaths per year in the EU.

Harmful alcohol consumption, viral hepatitis B and C and metabolic syndromes related to overweight and obesity are the leading causes of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer in Europe.

Economics and Public Health Policy

Based on a simulation model, OECD analyses show that several alcohol policies have the potential to reduce rates of heavy drinking, regular or episodic, and alcohol dependence, in three countries, by 5% to 10%. This would take those countries a long way towards achieving the voluntary target of reducing harmful alcohol use by 10% by 2025, a target adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2013 as part of the NCD Global Monitoring Framework. The OECD analysis found that governments’ ability to design and implement wide-ranging prevention strategies, combining the strengths of different policy approaches, is critical to success.

Authors: Gunderson E, Kirkpatrick MG, Willing LM, Holstege CP

There is a growing concern about the availability of a new generation of “designer drug” stimulants that are marketed as “bath salts” and other household products. The products are not true bath salts and contain substituted cathinone stimulant substances, such as  ethylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and mephedrone. Calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers regarding “bath salts” consumption began in 2010 and have continued since that time.

Author: WHO - Regional Office for Europe

People in the WHO European Region consume the most alcohol per head in the world. In the European Union (EU), alcohol accounts for about 120 000 premature deaths per year: 1 in 7 in men and 1 in 13 in women.

Most countries in the Region have adopted policies, strategies and plans to reduce alcohol-related harm. In 2012, the WHO Regional Office for Europe collected information on alcohol consumption and related harm, and countries policy responses to contribute to the Global Information System for Alcohol and Health; this report presented a selection of the results for 35 countries – EU Member States and candidate countries, Norway and Switzerland – individually and in groups distinguished by their drinking patterns and traditions.