Brazil's market is unregulated

doi:10.1136/bmj.39360.432940.BE

BMJ 2007;335:735 (13 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39360.432940.BE

Letters

Alcohol industry

Brazil's market is unregulated

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Farrell warns of the health implications of the unwelcome partnershipbetween the alcohol industry and the health sector.¹ Brazilhas one million selling points for alcohol in a population of180 million. These points can sell alcohol at any time of day,to anybody, including minors. We have a very aggressive advertisingstrategy on television that reaches millions of children. Inrecent research on a random sample of drivers, 30% of them hadalcohol in their blood. Brazil is by any account an unregulatedmarket for alcohol, and the alcohol industry is trying to keepit that way. This lack of regulation contributes to the 10%increase in consumption each year.

If that were not enough, the alcohol industry has approachedhealth professionals to advocate a harm reduction approach asthe best policy for tackling this problem in Brazil.

Ronaldo R Laranjeira, senior lecturer on addictive behaviour

Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo 04023-000, Brazil

laranjeira@uniad.org.br

Competing interests: None declared.