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Policy
- Video: Meet the 170-year-old sobriety movement (Feb 2020)
Movendi has been working to reduce alcohol harm for nigh-on 170 years, with its latest evolution being to change its name from IOGT last month. I talked about its past and future with president Kristina Sperkova. - Video: A more rational alcohol tax (Jan 2020)
On the eve of Brexit and the Budget Scott Corfe, research director of the Social Market Foundation think-tank, discusses his proposals for a more rational form of alcohol tax. - Alcohol safety labelling may be about to get worse (Aug 2019)
An apparent forward step on alcohol safety labelling last week may, in fact, signal that it is about to get worse. - Exclusive: Alcohol safety labelling “grace period” kept quiet for 22 months (Jul 2019)
The UK government kept quiet for 22 months about the “grace period” it gave alcohol suppliers to omit the official safety guidelines, Alcohol Companion has discovered. - Tepid reception for industry alcohol labelling pledge (Jul 2019)
News the biggest players in the UK’s alcohol industry have agreed to put weekly drinking guidelines on their labels, a month before a government deadline to do so, has prompted little jubilation among health advocates. - Alcohol worsens disadvantages (May 2019)
With a welcome spotlight being shone on rising inequality this week it is worth noting that alcohol makes it harder for poorer people to succeed in a game already heavily weighted against them. - CAMRA launches minimum alcohol price investigation (May 2019)
The leaders of a UK organisation representing traditional pub and ale enthusiasts have decided to hold an investigation into the effects of minimum alcohol pricing. - Update: Alcohol strategy rift remains over conflicts of interest (Sep 2018)
There was no narrowing of the rift in the UK’s bid to tackle alcohol harm, which sprang open on Monday when a government health agency went into partnership with an alcohol industry-funded campaign, despite hearing strong opposition to the conflict of interests. - Legal threats scupper Canadian alcohol cancer warning trial (Feb 2018)
Legal threats have scuppered hopes for the resumption of a Canadian trial of labels warning that drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancer, putting a question mark over plans to inform consumers elsewhere. - Fact-check: Support for alcohol health labelling (Mar 2018)
The alcohol industry’s Portman Group (PG) is using a study it co-funded to resist calls for providing health information on alcoholic drink labels. Here’s a look at what the study actually says. - Alcohol labellers face legal “domino effect” (Jan 2018)
Jurisdictions trying to introduce health warning labels on alcoholic drinks face a daunting battery of legal challenges intended to discourage them and others, say experts. - Exclusive: Alcohol producers quietly lower UK’s health labelling standard (Oct 2017)
Alcohol producers have quietly adopted a lower standard for consumer health information on labels, no longer committing to mention the official weekly guidelines for low-risk consumption.
Opinion
- Alcohol: Why not all use millilitres? (Dec 2019)
We could make alcohol health guidelines easier to picture, calculate and compare internationally by giving them all in millilitres.
Science
- There is no safe level of alcohol drinking (Aug 2018)
There is no safe level of alcohol drinking, something linked to almost one-in-ten deaths in adults under 50 globally, says a study published today in The Lancet. - Minimal alcohol drinking linked to longer life (Apr 2018)
Our life expectancy is lower if we drink more than 125ml of alcohol a week, according to new research. - Alcohol-dementia link far bigger than thought (Feb 2018)
Heavy alcohol drinking is linked to 57% of cases of early-onset dementia, according to a new study, far more than most experts had guessed. - Alcohol is not a human “brain cleaner” (Feb 2018)
Recent headlines saying alcohol drinking “cleans brains” should not persuade humans to drink more. ■