Canada should consider higher liquor taxes, a lower blood-alcohol limit and other measures to curb drinking, a group of University of Toronto researchers is urging after calculating a new and larger estimate of alcohol’s annual death toll.
Using a novel statistical method, the authors of the analysis suggest
close to 4,000 Canadians under 65 die yearly from alcohol-related illness and accidents, a toll they say is needless and could be slashed rapidly with effective public-health action.
In a paper just published in the journal BMC Public Health, they also say that a national system to monitor the level of Canadian drinking and related deaths is “imperative.”
“The mortality burden attributable to alcohol consumption is large, unnecessary and could be substantially reduced in a short period of time,” write the team led by Jürgen Rehm, head of epidemiological research at Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
“In contrast to tobacco-related mortality, the average age of death from alcohol consumption is much lower … primarily in adults of working age, and results in negative economic impact.”
Spirits and beer makers, however, argued Monday the researchers overreached the science behind their study by suggesting preventive action that is not justified by the facts.
Rather than impose broad measures that affect everyone and may do little, regulators should focus on addressing the minority of drinkers who have a problem, said Jan Westcott of Spirits Canada, the distillers’ trade association.
“You often have [scientists] doing these highly technical studies, based on some Canadian data with a lot of analysis, and some extrapolation,” he said. “And then the authors take it and say ‘We can do this and this and this.’ They go from the science side to some social engineering.”
Most provinces already have a better way of preventing problem drinking — the minimum price stipulated for sale of beer, wine or spirits, called “social reference pricing,” said André Fortin of the Brewers Association of Canada.
As for a lower blood-alcohol limit behind the wheel, data suggest that the small proportion of the driving population who drink and drive frequently account for most impaired driving accidents, he said.
“Targeting these high-risk repeat offenders who are routinely well over the criminal blood alcohol content limit should be the priority,” Mr. Fortin said in an emailed response to questions.
Christelle Legault, a Health Canada spokeswoman, said that most of the measures researchers have identified as being useful to curb harmful drinking, including higher taxes, minimum prices and restricted store and bar hours, fall under provincial jurisdiction and are already in place in some form.
As for any further hike in alcohol tax, “there is no one single approach that guarantees decreases in drinking rates,” she said in an email response to questions.
Prof. Rehm’s group considered results of a 2008 federal survey on Canadian drinking patterns, Statistics Canada mortality figures from 2005 — the most recent year available — and data on the correlation between alcohol and various illnesses and accidents. They then calculated numbers of deaths caused by those diseases and mishaps that could be attributable to drinking, arguing that previous studies used a methodology that underestimated the number of deaths.
The researchers concluded that alcohol caused 4,390 deaths in 2005 and prevented 420, for a net of 3,970.
That included more than 900 deaths related to various cancers; more than 800 from cirrhosis of the liver; more than 600 due to road accidents; and about 500 suicides. Three times as many men died as women.
The paper said previous research by Prof. Rehm has concluded that raising alcohol prices by 25% would save 59 deaths, while lowering the blood-alcohol limit to .05% from .08% would prevent 173 deaths.
The numbers do not include those deaths in road accidents and workplace mishaps caused by the drinking of other people, as opposed to the victim, as there is insufficient data, they said.
Deaths in those over 64 — who often suffer from multiple health problems — were also left out, because it is more difficult to determine causation, the paper said.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/06 ... -drinking/
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