French government is urged to fight alcohol misuse
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《英国医生杂志》
A best selling author and former alcoholic has called for the French government to make draconian changes to the law to fight alcohol misuse in the same way that it now fights cigarette smoking and dangerous driving.
Would these drinkers in a French bar be influenced by health warnings on wine bottles?
Credit: PAUL COOPER/REX
In his report, written with the help of eight experts, the journalist Hervé Chabalier criticises the government and medical system for taking alcohol misuse too lightly and claims that it is the most under-recognised illness in France.
Initiated a year ago by the previous health minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the report nevertheless received no government funding and was published commercially as a 158 page book at the same time as it was submitted to the current health minister, Xavier Bertrand.
The report recommends:
the creation of an alcohol foundation to be funded by taxes on alcohol, whose goal would be to make the fight against alcoholism a national cause
labelling every bottle with the words "Consuming alcohol is dangerous for health"
forcing companies to establish strict drinking codes, including banning alcohol from company cafeterias, regulating the amount of alcohol at company parties, and instituting "zero alcohol tolerance" in high risk occupations such as the police and transport workers
enforcing the law forbidding the sale of alcohol to minors and requiring shops to post signs saying that the sale of alcohol is illegal to people under 16 years of age
giving a member of staff in each hospital the responsibility of identifying people who had been admitted because of an accident caused by alcohol.
The report says that alcohol is directly responsible for 23 000 deaths a year, primarily from cancer and cirrhoses, and 45 000 deaths if alcohol related violence and accidents are included.(Brad Spurgeon)
Would these drinkers in a French bar be influenced by health warnings on wine bottles?
Credit: PAUL COOPER/REX
In his report, written with the help of eight experts, the journalist Hervé Chabalier criticises the government and medical system for taking alcohol misuse too lightly and claims that it is the most under-recognised illness in France.
Initiated a year ago by the previous health minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, the report nevertheless received no government funding and was published commercially as a 158 page book at the same time as it was submitted to the current health minister, Xavier Bertrand.
The report recommends:
the creation of an alcohol foundation to be funded by taxes on alcohol, whose goal would be to make the fight against alcoholism a national cause
labelling every bottle with the words "Consuming alcohol is dangerous for health"
forcing companies to establish strict drinking codes, including banning alcohol from company cafeterias, regulating the amount of alcohol at company parties, and instituting "zero alcohol tolerance" in high risk occupations such as the police and transport workers
enforcing the law forbidding the sale of alcohol to minors and requiring shops to post signs saying that the sale of alcohol is illegal to people under 16 years of age
giving a member of staff in each hospital the responsibility of identifying people who had been admitted because of an accident caused by alcohol.
The report says that alcohol is directly responsible for 23 000 deaths a year, primarily from cancer and cirrhoses, and 45 000 deaths if alcohol related violence and accidents are included.(Brad Spurgeon)