Alcohol harms individuals, families and communities, not only to those who drink it, but also to those around them. WHO: One in 10 adults in Europe has an alcohol use disorder Health
In Europe, little progress has been made in reducing alcohol consumption and harm. People in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European Region, covering 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia, drink the most alcohol per capita in the world, according to the latest available data.
“One WHO region stands out in the latest global report on the state of alcohol, health and treatment of substance use disorders,” said the organization’s Gaudin Galea. “The European region continues to have the unenviable place in the world with the highest levels of alcohol consumption and associated harm, and the fewest abstainers.”
Extent of alcohol consumption
According to the latest globally comparable data, men in the European Region consumed almost 4 times more alcohol (14.9 liters per year) than women (4.0 liters). In 2019, an average of two out of every three adults drank alcohol in Europe and Central Asia. An estimated one in 10 adults in the region (11 percent) has an alcohol use disorder, and one in 20 lives with an alcohol dependence (5.9 percent).
Since 2010, only 12 of 53 countries have made significant progress in reducing alcohol consumption by 10 percent, in line with agreed targets.
The WHO European Region as a whole appears to be in on track to achieve this goal, but this is primarily due to significant reductions in alcohol consumption in several large countries, such as the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine. They took drastic measures to increase excise taxes on alcohol and limit its availability. However, in the EU countries there have been no significant changes in this area for more than ten years.
The harm of alcoholic beverages
Alcohol harms individuals, families and communities, not just those who drink it, but also those around them, WHO warns. In Europe, alcohol is one of the leading causes of death: almost 800 thousand people die every year. Thus, about 2,200 residents of the region die every day from causes related to alcoholic beverages. Alcohol-related deaths account for nearly 9 percent of total deaths, the highest in the world.
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The majority of alcohol-related deaths in the region were due to non-communicable diseases (more than 600 thousand per year), about half of them from cardiovascular diseases. The WHO report also notes a particularly high incidence of alcohol-related cancers.
This is compounded by the extremely low awareness that alcohol is one of the most significant risk factors for cancer. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning there is compelling evidence that alcohol can cause cancer in humans, this fact is not known to the public.
Insufficient measures
Despite evidence of the harm caused by alcohol, many European countries have yet to make significant progress in implementing WHO-recommended policies, including the most cost-effective ones effective interventions. These include increasing excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, introducing comprehensive restrictions on marketing, and reducing the availability of alcohol.
For example, an ongoing project in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia has shown that once the government implements control policies at the population level, people begin to consume less alcohol, harm from it decreases, and overall life expectancy increases, and even members of the most vulnerable groups live longer.
WHO Urges all countries to step up their efforts to meet their targets and limit the commercial influences that lead to high levels of alcohol consumption. Implementing With effective population-level policies, countries can significantly reduce the burden of disease, mortality, disability and injury.