MP calls for new measures to protect children from alcohol advertising

Editorial: Alcohol marketing to children

2011-03-24

(Press-News.org) Next week, Sarah Wollaston MP will put forward a private member's bill urging the government to adopt a new approach to protect UK children from alcohol advertising.

In an editorial published on bmj.com today, Professor Gerard Hastings and Dr Nick Sheron set out why we urgently need to tackle the excessive drinking of our young people and their massive exposure to alcohol advertising.

The bill will call on the government to adapt French legislation that allows alcohol advertising in media aimed at adults but not children, and ensures that promotional messages are factual and verifiable.

The measure (called the "loi evin") was applied in France in 1991 to protect their children from alcohol marketing and has been a key plank in France's effort to reduce its alcohol problems. Alcohol consumption in France has been falling consistently since 1960.

In contrast, the UK has "clumsily imposed self regulatory codes" and now has one of the highest levels binge drinking and drunkenness among schoolchildren in Europe, say the authors.

In 2008, there were more than 600 alcohol-related deaths – almost two a day - among 15-24 year-olds in England and Wales and significantly more than the combined toll from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease in this age group.

Added to this are problems of anti-social behaviour, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Meanwhile, the UK drinks industry spends £800m a year promoting alcohol compared with a budget of just £2.6m for the UK's biggest alcohol education initiative in 2010. "For every £1 spent advising young people about the downsides of drinking, several hundred pounds are spent encouraging them to drink more," say the authors.

In the long term the bill will change drinking behaviour in young people, they write. Evidence clearly shows that alcohol promotion encourages children to drink at an earlier age and in greater quantities than they otherwise would. A recent study found that 96% of UK 13 year olds were aware of alcohol advertising.

"Removing this profoundly unhealthy influence is, unsurprisingly, recognised as a key public health priority," they conclude. "So, along with their café culture, the "loi evin" is a French innovation that the UK needs."

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New IRS Amnesty Offer for Offshore Accounts

2011-03-24

Americans who have not disclosed large sums of money in foreign offshore accounts have a second chance at tax amnesty. The Internal Revenue Service is giving taxpayers with foreign bank accounts until August 31 to voluntarily report the accounts and income and avoid tax evasion charges. In exchange, these taxpayers would pay penalties that are lower than what the IRS would usually charge. Although these penalties are higher than those offered during a previous tax amnesty in 2009, the avoidance of prosecution remains a major incentive for a taxpayer to take the deal. The ...

Coronary artery calcium scans may help lower heart disease risk without increasing tests and costs

2011-03-24

LOS ANGELES (EMBARGOED UNTIL 4 PM EST, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2011) – A new study of coronary artery calcium scanning – a simple, noninvasive test that gives patients baseline information about plaque in their coronary arteries—has shown that the scan helps them make heart-healthy lifestyle changes and lower their heart disease risk factors. The study, the EISNER trial (Early Identification of Subclinical Atherosclerosis by Noninvasive Imaging Research), was headed by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Cedars-Sinai's S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Department ...

Epigenomic findings illuminate veiled variants

2011-03-24

Genes make up only a tiny percentage of the human genome. The rest, which has remained measurable but mysterious, may hold vital clues about the genetic origins of disease. Using a new mapping strategy, a collaborative team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and MIT has begun to assign meaning to the regions beyond our genes and has revealed how minute changes in these regions might be connected to common diseases. The researchers' findings appear in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature. The results ...

Wind tunnel begins operations at Empa in Duebendorf

2011-03-24

A typical city: row upon row of houses built almost on top of each other, with asphalted roads between them and with very few green areas to be found. Urban areas built on this pattern warm up more strongly than their rural surroundings, creating islands of warmth. The waste heat emitted by vehicles and machinery (such as air conditioning equipment) causes yet more heating, and even during the night the city hardly cools down to any noticeable extent. Megacities such as Mexico City and urban conurbations such as Athens are more and more frequently covered by a visible dome ...

Criminal Attorney Negotiates Reduced Sentence for Drug Trafficking Charges

2011-03-24

Raleigh criminal defense lawyer Patrick Roberts at the Roberts Law Group PLLC used the facts he learned about his client's criminal arrest to negotiate a potential 70 to 80 month prison sentence down to 10 to 12 months. Criminal attorney Patrick Roberts used information that he gleaned in truly getting to know his client in discussions with the Wake County District Attorney's Office. The facts of the case were as follows: Mr. Roberts' client was facing two counts of drug trafficking after police recovered two large quantities of cocaine from a house where his client ...

Decline in sales of anxiolytics and hypnotics in Norway

2011-03-24

After many years of gradual increase followed by a three-year levelling off period, sales of addictive anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs decreased by just under two per cent in 2010. This comes from the new report "Drug Consumption in Norway 2006-2010". The statistics include all sales of prescription and OTC drugs in Norway from wholesalers to pharmacies, hospitals / nursing homes and grocery stores. The report also shows that total sales of OTC medicines measured in DDDs declined by six per cent in 2010. This is mainly due to lower sales of OTC packets of paracetamol ...

Road traffic pollution doubles risk of rejection after lung transplant

2011-03-24

Lung transplant patients have double the risk of organ rejection and death within five years of the procedure if they live near a main road, indicates research published online in Thorax. The Belgian researchers tracked the health of 281 patients who had undergone a lung transplant or retransplant at the same hospital between 1997 and 2008 until 2009. They took into account how far these patients lived from a main road and therefore a source of airborne road traffic pollution to see if this had any impact on their survival rates, as pollutants are known to trigger inflammation. Around ...

'What if?' scenario: Cyberwar between US and China in 2020

2011-03-24

As Iran's nuclear plant attack and Chinese-based hackers attacking Morgan Stanley demonstrate how the Internet can wreak havoc on business and governments, a new paper by a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy hypothesizes what an all-out cyberwar between the U.S. and China might look like. To date, the cyberattacks in East Asia have been relatively benign, said Christopher Bronk, author of "Blown to Bits: China's War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020," published this month in the U.S. Air Force journal Strategic Studies Quarterly. Bronk is ...

Critical care outside hospital 'incomplete, unpredictable, and inconsistent' across UK

2011-03-24

The critical care expertise available before a severely injured person can be admitted to hospital is "incomplete, unpredictable, and inconsistent," shows research published online in Emergency Medicine Journal. Ambulance services are often reliant on volunteer doctors with variable levels of expertise and the availability of specialist doctors is patchy, particularly over evenings or weekends, the study shows. This implies something of a postcode lottery of provision across the UK, and raises questions about the UK's ability to deal effectively with a critical incident ...

1 in every 5 Spaniards suffers from insomnia

2011-03-24

Insomnia is common in Spain, and affects one person in every five. This is the conclusion of a study carried out by the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona and the Stanford University School of Medicine (USA), which shows that 40% of survey respondents aged over 65 report interrupted sleep at night being the prime cause of this problem. "Good sleep hygiene is necessary in order to avoid primary insomnia, as well as being aware that the number of hours of sleep needed falls with age, adopting regular times for going to bed and getting up, and stopping having ...

MP calls for new measures to protect children from alcohol advertising

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: