Target cheap drinking as we did passive smoking, says chief medical officer

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1124

Published 17 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1124
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1124

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Target cheap drinking as we did passive smoking, says chief medical officer

Zosia Kmietowicz

¹ London

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

The chief medical officer for England has called for a minimumprice of 50 pence ( ${euro}$ 0.54; $0.70) to be charged for a unit ofalcohol to reduce excessive drinking and its associated harms.

Liam Donaldson said that antisocial drinking should be targetedin the same way as smoking in public places so that being drunkis no longer an aim or socially acceptable.

"England has a drink problem and the whole of society bearsthe burden," said Professor Donaldson at the launch of his 2008annual report. "The passive effects of heavy drinking on innocentparties are easily underestimated and frequently ignored. Theconcept of passive drinking and the devastating collateral effectthat alcohol can have on others must be addressed on a nationalscale."

He said that evidence shows that price and access are the twokey factors that can help to change drinking habits, as theywere . . . [Full text of this article]

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