Welcome to the 'news' section of IHRA's alcohol website. If you would like to feature anything on this page - such as an article about alcohol harm reduction in your country, a report or resource launch by your organisation, or an announcement about an event - please contact Jamie Bridge.
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16th September 2008
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Call for Abstracts: Alcohol Harm Reduction
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The abstract submission system for Harm Reduction 2009: IHRA’s 20th International Conference has now opened. The conference takes place from the 19th to the 23rd April 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand, and we would like to encourage all GAHR-Net members and those interested in alcohol harm reduction to submit abstracts about their practice, research, experiences or advocacy work. At the last IHRA conference – Harm Reduction 2008 – there was a Major Session, a Living Room Session and a Satellite Event dedicated to this topic, but we are hoping to increase this focus for 2009. In order to do this, we are reliant on the receipt of quality, innovative abstracts from the field.
In particular, the conference organisers are interested in receiving abstracts about ground-breaking research, successful advocacy campaigns, or the delivery of innovative harm reduction services – especially from Thailand and South-East Asia. In order to assist delegates, the conference organisers have created a Guide for Developing and Submitting an Abstract [PDF:102KB] which includes information about the conference, how abstracts are selected, how to develop an idea for presentation, and how to format and write the abstract itself.
In order to submit an abstract, delegates must first register for the conference and create a new user account. Once you have done this, simply click on the “your submissions” link and follow the instructions to submit an abstract. Abstracts must be submitted in English, be no longer than 300 words and be submitted before November 10th 2008.
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16th September 2008
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GAHR-Net Launch New Online Discussion Group
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The Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net) is pleased to announce a new online ‘Google Group’ for our 900 members to communicate and discuss practical alcohol harm reduction interventions and policies. The group, like the Network itself, is aimed at a huge range of audiences – including researchers, harm reduction advocates, practitioners, emergency service staff, policy makers and NGOs – many of whom may not consider themselves as ‘alcohol specialists’.
In order to join this new discussion group, you must first join GAHR-Net – which is free for both individuals and organisations. You will then be automatically added to the discussion group. Existing GAHR-Net members should receive an automated email confirming their subscription to this new discussion group. If you do not receive this notification, please contact Jamie Bridge. Once you are subscribed to the Google Groups service, you will be able to manage your account, change your settings and personal profile, and unsubscribe if required.
The new discussion group will allow people from around the world to share ideas, experiences and opinions in a supportive forum, which we hope will eventually act as a ‘clearing house’ of alcohol harm reduction resources and information. It will also be a useful tool in identifying news items and articles for IHRA‘s alcohol website.
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29th August 2008
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Focus on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
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A number of members of the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net) recently noted the absence of any information on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) – a specific alcohol-related harm to which harm reduction can be readily applied. A number of these members – including Peggy Seo Oba, Madaline Muir and Dr Barry Stanley – were asked to draft an introductory piece about this issue:
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a type of neurological brain disorder that can occur from when a baby is conceived, throughout the pregnancy, and during breast feeding. Depending on when a pregnant women drinks, her physical susceptibility, her nutritional status, and how much she consumes (at least 2 drinks per day, 14 drinks on average per week or 4 or more drinks upon one occasion), her baby can be born with a range of brain disorders that run the gamut from mild to very severe. Full FAS occurs 0.2 to 2 times in every 1,000 births in the USA. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) – which include full FAS as well as a wide range of behavioural symptoms without physical problems – may occur in as many as one in every 100 live births.
Full FAS may manifest itself in the form of physical abnormalities and severe behavioural problems. Physical symptoms that have occurred are Cerebral Palsy-like ‘hypotonia’ (a condition of abnormally low muscle tone), tremors, poor suction, mispronunciation or misuse of words, lack of early smiling, jerkiness, eye-fluttering, and unilateral weakness. Epilepsy-like symptoms may also occur, such as ‘atonic’ or ‘drop’ seizures and ‘absence’ (or ‘petit mal’) seizures.
Behaviourally, Dr. Ann Streissguth of the University of Washington’s Foetal Alcohol and Drug Unit has stated that the most outstanding characteristics of FAS are "bad judgment and the inability to connect an action with its consequences". Children with FAD often exhibit neuropsychiatric problems that may include hyperactivity, overstimulation, shutdown, a lack of ability to detect social cues, an inability to execute higher level mathematics, temper tantrums, preservation, and mild mental retardation. Other symptoms may include inappropriate sexual touching and some violent types of behaviour. In many cases, 94% of those diagnosed FAS or FASD will also be diagnosed with co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses.
In terms of targeted harm reduction interventions, many countries – including the USA – advise pregnant women (and women who are planning a pregnancy) not to drink alcoholic beverages. FASD experts and researchers recommend that a couple planning on having a baby should not drink alcohol from three months prior to conception, throughout the pregnancy and for as long as the mother is breast-feeding. If a woman cannot stop drinking, then she is urged to cut down as much as possible in order to reduce the potential harms.
For more information about Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), please visit the following links:
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If you have an issue or topic that you would like to write about for the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net), please contact Jamie Bridge.
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1st August 2008
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New ICAP Book Explores ‘Extreme Drinking’
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The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) have released a new book – entitled ‘Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme Drinking’ – which offers an interesting insight into the complex global drinking patterns among many young people. These drinking patterns are often shaped by attitudes towards alcohol and broader social norms – including the changing role of young people in society and the changing nature of adolescence.
When exploring intoxication amongst young people, much focus has been traditionally given to ‘binge drinking’ – the definition of which is based solely on the amount of alcohol that is drunk on a single occasion (a ‘binge’). However, such an approach fails to distinguish between, say, ten units of alcohol consumed over time during an evening dinner in a restaurant and ten units of alcohol consumed at high speed in a bar or club on a weekend evening. As such, the use of the ‘binge’ terminology may not be sufficient to fully explore and understand the culture of purposeful intoxication amongst young people around the world.
This book, however, advocates for an alternative term – ‘extreme drinking’ – which better describes heavy, excessive and risky drinking patterns among young people by concentrating on the behaviours, motivations and expected outcomes associated with a drinking event, rather than the amount consumed per se. ‘Swimming with Crocodiles’ examines rapid drinking behaviours through focus groups with young people in seven countries around the world – Brazil, China, Italy, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and Scotland. From these focus groups, ‘extreme drinking’ is characterised by five criteria – intoxication, motivation, process, outcomes, and alcohol experience. The book then goes on to describe interventions that could be employed to address these high-risk behaviours.
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4th July 2008
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Alcohol Harm Reduction Conference Takes Place in Barcelona
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The ‘4th International Conference on Alcohol and Harm Reduction’ took place in Barcelona, Spain on May 11th 2008 – as a satellite event at Harm Reduction 2008: IHRA’s 19th International Conference. The one-day event – organised by IHRA and Quest 4 Quality – was attended by over 100 people from nearly 40 different countries around the world, and employed an interactive format in order to engage participants and discuss some of the key issues around the conference theme – ‘Alcohol and Youth’.
This was the latest in a series of biennial events dedicated to harm reduction as it is applied to alcohol – the previous conferences taking place in Brazil (2002), Poland (2004) and South Africa (2006). The programme focused on interaction, engagement and innovation, and aimed to be both interesting and entertaining. There were presentations from Australia, Denmark, Scotland, Spain, the USA, and Youth RISE (Resource, Information, Support, Education) – the international peer-led youth network for reducing drug-related harm. The programme also included roundtable discussions for delegates to discuss specific issues in smaller groups, a ‘youth panel’ discussion, and a presentation from Jamie Bridge introducing the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net).
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The conference organisers have produced a detailed report of the conference proceedings. Overall, there was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm at the event, but the challenge now for the alcohol harm reduction community is to maintain the momentum and ideas and turn them into advocacy, action, policy and practice. IHRA hope that GAHR-Net can play a crucial role in this.
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4th July 2008
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Consultation: ‘Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol’
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The Scottish Government has released a new “Framework for Action” on reducing alcohol-related harms. This broad “strategic approach” – which is open for consultation until Tuesday 9th September 2008 – aims to deliver long-term and sustainable changes in the Scottish drinking culture. According to Nicola Sturgeon (the Scottish Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing), “Scotland's current relationship with alcohol is undermining our potential as individuals, families, communities and as a country. If we are to fulfil our ambitions, we must rebalance our relationship with alcohol”.
In order to do this, the Scottish Government has proposed a comprehensive range of measures including a welcome mix of population-level, supply reduction measures (such as minimum prices for alcohol, a ban on discounted and ‘below-cost’ alcohol sales, promotion restrictions, and changes in the minimum purchase age) and targeted harm reduction measures (such as a 'social responsibility fee' levied against certain alcohol retailers, action on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, services to manage “drunk and incapable people”, and a ‘Safer Streets Initiative’ to reduce harm in the evenings in busy city centres).
The Framework also includes a pilot scheme in the county of Fife in East Scotland to demonstrate the effectiveness and cumulative impact of locally-led, multi-component, partnership-based, targeted alcohol harm reduction interventions. A local steering group has been formed – including representatives from local government, the emergency services, the alcohol industry and civil society – and will oversee the pilot project for the next two years. The interventions that are delivered could include offering free non-alcohol beverages to ‘designated drivers’, drink-driving prevention campaigns, promoting safer drinking with the help of the local media, improvements to local transport (which could be free or subsidised in the evenings), installing ‘taxi marshals’ to assist getting people home, and server training. This project is similar to IHRA’s ‘Alcohol and the City’ initiative, which is currently working towards a local harm reduction approach in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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The proposed Framework will be delivered through partnership working between the Government and a range of key stakeholders – including local governments, local ‘Alcohol and Drug Action Teams’, the National Health Service (NHS), the alcohol industry, the emergency services, civil society, service providers, and local alcohol licensing boards.
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18th June 2008
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World Health Organization to Develop Global Alcohol Strategy
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In May 2008, at the 61st World Health Assembly, a resolution was passed requesting that the World Health Organization steps up its work to reduce alcohol-related harms by developing a global alcohol strategy over the next two years.
The strategy will be devised through consultation between the WHO Director-General and Member States, civil society and economic operators to discuss the various ways that they could contribute to reducing the harmful use of alcohol. Delegates agreed that the WHO strategy should be "based on all available evidence and existing best practices...taking into account different national, religious and cultural contexts", and should include recommended national measures for Member States to adopt. It is hoped that this will help to homogenise alcohol policies around the world, which were found to be highly varied in the WHO’s comprehensive Global Status Report on Alcohol Policy in 2003.
There had been concerns that objections from some Member States and the involvement of the alcohol industry could weaken any potential actions. In the past, Member States such as the USA and Cuba have favoured a voluntary strategy with greater alcohol industry involvement, while others – such as Thailand – have strongly opposed such involvement. Despite these differences of opinion, however, the final resolution has been generally well received across the alcohol field – although, according to Professor Robin Room (a leading alcohol policy expert at the University of Melbourne), “A resolution is all very well, but it still takes a substantial commitment… for this to be translated into a substantial and lasting programme of work… Alcohol has been a politically touchy thing for WHO to deal with”.
The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for the World Health Organization, and meets annually to discuss and determine WHO policies. The 61st World Health Assembly took place in Geneva, Switzerland between the 19th and the 24th May 2008 and was attended by a record 2,704 participants from 190 nations. According to Dr Leslie Ramsammy (President of the Health Assembly and Minister of Health of Guyana), it represented a crucial “interplay between political, trade and health interests".
Among many other things in a very busy agenda, the Assembly endorsed an action plan to tackle ‘non-communicable diseases’ (such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers) and identified four common risk factors to tackle - tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity, and the harmful use of alcohol. The latter was acknowledged as the fifth leading risk factor for death and disability in the world – associated with 2.3 million deaths a year, 3.7% of global mortality, and harms such as traffic accidents, suicides, crime, violence, unemployment and absenteeism.
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18th June 2008
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Campaign Targets ‘Super-Strength’ Drinks
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In October 2005, a UK charity launched a campaign against ‘super strength’ lagers and ciders which are sold across the country. In a recent article in The Big Issue (UK), these drinks are described as being “a breed apart” from other alcoholic beverages – a “niche” product which is almost exclusively consumed by, and causes devastation among, problematic, marginalised and homeless drinkers. As such, it is claimed that these beverages should be the subject of targeted interventions in order to reduce alcohol-related harm.
The on-going campaign is led by Thames Reach – a London-based organisation supporting homeless and vulnerable people – and focuses on the fact that just one can of these ‘super-strength’ beverages exceeds the UK Government's daily recommended safe alcohol limit for men and women. As part of the campaign, Thames Reach has lobbied the UK Government and enlisted the support of a number of politicians. They have also made formal complaints to the relevant regulatory bodies about the excessive alcoholic content of these products, and called for lagers to only be allowed a maximum strength of 6% ‘alcohol-by-volume’ (many ‘super-strength’ lagers are currently around 9%). The overall aim is to reduce the levels of alcohol-related deaths amongst homeless people.
Jeremy Swain, the Chief Executive of Thames Reach, said: “Our campaign is not a moralistic one. Our intention is simply to highlight the impact of the super strength lager phenomenon that has developed over the past twenty years across the UK and the entirely unacceptable cull of people whose deaths are hastened through consuming these products”. The campaign is not focused on abstinence – rather the need to support individuals onto safer (and less strong) alternative drinks such as regular lagers in order to achieve “significant health improvements”, and follows similar targeted interventions that have been implemented in Ireland and Australia.
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This feature appeared in The Big Issue (UK) #789 (dated 31st March 2008). To order a back issue, please call +44 (0) 207 526 32 67.
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 Click here to view the recent Big Issue article on “The Demon Drink” [PDF:7.47MB]
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22nd April 2008
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‘50 Best’ Document Collection on Alcohol Harm Reduction
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In April 2008, IHRA launched the fourth in a series of ‘50 Best’ document collections – this time focusing on Alcohol Harm Reduction. The ‘50 Best’ collections have been created by IHRA in order to provide free, accessible harm reduction resources on its website. The idea is to highlight around 50 papers which best summarise the evidence-base, reasoning and justification for various harm reduction interventions and approaches. These resources can then be used by other researchers, policy-makers, advocates or anyone interested in the field.
This latest collection is designed to improve knowledge and discussion on alcohol harm reduction and to complement IHRA’s other work in this area – including the new alcohol website and the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net). This particular set of documents was the result of several months of literature searches and research by IHRA, with the support and guidance of an International Reference Panel.
Alcohol is no ordinary commodity. It is a drug which brings health, personal, cultural and social benefits for many people around the world – yet causes significant mental, physical and social harms for many others. To effectively tackle this dilemma, comprehensive alcohol policies must be developed that focus on targeted populations, harms and behaviours as well as the availability and accessibility of alcohol at the population level. This means policies that complement traditional interventions (such as taxation and restricted licensing hours) by generating and embracing new ideas and more focused approaches (such as server training and interventions targeted at specific risk groups such as students or binge drinkers). This also means policies that engage all of the relevant stakeholders – including people who drink alcohol and the alcohol vendors and manufacturers.
This collection aims to provide information and best practice on a range of alcohol harm reduction interventions and policies. It aims to provide a one-stop resource for anyone who is interested in how practical, targeted harm reduction interventions can be applied to alcohol. It is intended for a broad range of audiences - including policy makers, practitioners, communities, the alcohol industry, international organisations, researchers and alcohol users around the world. The collection is separated into sub-topics and is fully searchable on the website – with most of the documents freely available to download online.
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Previous ’50 Best’ collections from IHRA cover HIV prevention and care for injecting drug users, tobacco harm reduction, and the role of policing in harm reduction for illicit drugs – all of which are available to view and search on the IHRA website. Over the coming months, IHRA also plan to launch a further “50 Best” collection on harm reduction advocacy.
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