MADRID, (EUROPA PRESS).- European adults consume an average of 9.2 liters of pure alcohol per year, making them the biggest drinkers in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which calls on countries to implement effective policies to reduce the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
A new WHO report, covering 53 countries in the WHO European Region, which includes countries in Europe and Central Asia, reveals that European men drink almost four times more than women and that there are 470 million drinkers. According to the report, two-thirds of adults drink, one in ten has an alcohol use disorder and nearly 6 percent live with alcohol dependence.
Despite these figures, only 12 of the 53 countries have reduced alcohol consumption by 10 percent since 2010, according to the WHO. In Europe’s most populous countries, such as Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, there have been significant decreases due to increased taxes and limited availability. The WHO has explained that these reductions make the overall numbers appear to be a significant drop in alcohol consumption in Europe as a region, even though this is not the case.
In fact, EU countries have not seen any change in alcohol consumption for over ten years, highlighting the need to step up action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this regard, the WHO has warned of the far-reaching impact of drinking, which includes domestic violence, accidents and mental health problems.
WHO Regional Adviser on Alcohol, Illicit Drugs and Prison Health, Carina Ferreira-Borges, said Europe was paying a high price for its drinking habits. “Alcohol is causing hundreds of thousands of cases of cardiovascular diseases, injuries, cancers and cirrhosis of the liver in our region,” she said.
The study shows that alcohol is one of the leading causes of death in Europe, with almost 800,000 deaths a year. 2,200 people die every day from alcohol-related causes, which accounts for almost 9 percent of all deaths in the region. The majority of alcohol-related deaths – more than 600,000 a year – are due to non-communicable diseases, half of them from heart disease.
Furthermore, there is a high incidence of alcohol-related cancers due to high consumption and the ageing of the European population, which poses a problem as few people are aware that alcohol constitutes a high risk of cancer.
Despite the risks, WHO has highlighted that many European countries are not implementing WHO recommendations to reduce alcohol consumption, such as increasing alcohol taxes, restricting marketing and reducing availability. It has pointed to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as examples of countries where these policies are working.
The WHO has stressed that the evidence and tools exist, and has underlined that what is needed is “will.” “We must act now and make changes to keep our populations healthy,” it has stressed, calling on countries to act.
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2024-07-28 09:20:11
