International regulation of alcohol

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2364

Published 6 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2364
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2364

Editorials

International regulation of alcohol

A framework convention is needed, as for tobacco control

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinantsof Health has just issued its main report,¹ which lays out anambitious programme of actions to tackle health inequity. Thecommission notes the substantial contribution of alcohol toinjury, disease, and death worldwide,² and it proposes thatWHO and member nations should use the 2005 framework conventionon tobacco control as a model for alcohol control. We agreethat it is time to adopt such a framework.

The commission’s work underscores the urgent need forinternational agreements that promote alcohol controls throughoutthe developing and developed world. Increasing affluence inthe fastest developing regions of the world—East Asia,the Pacific region, and South Asia—has led to increasedalcohol consumption, along with a higher burden of harm causedby alcohol. These increases foreshadow future trends in consumptionand harm for other developing countries—such as thosein Africa, Central America, and South America—if . . . [Full text of this article]

Robin Room, professor¹, Laura Schmidt, associate professor², Jürgen Rehm, professor and section head³, Pia Mäkelä, senior researcher⁴

¹ School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, and AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Fitzroy, Vic 3065, Australia, ² Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA, ³ Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Section on Public Health and Regulatory Policies, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S1, Canada, ⁴ Alcohol and Drug Research Group, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), 00100 Helsinki, Finland

RobinR@turningpoint.org.au

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