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Date: 17 February 2012
Alcohol is one of the world’s biggest risk factors of disease and disability, second to underweight children and unsafe sex. The ill effects of drink-driving, under-age drinking and excess consumption are widely recognised, particularly in middle-income countries, but little legislation exists to force strict education and control around these issues.
In a comment published in the latest issue of Nature, Dr Devi Sridhar Global Health Politics Director at The George Centre for Healthcare Innovation, University of Oxford, is calling for the World Health Organization (WHO) to use its legislative powers to regulate alcohol and force member states to take a firmer stand against the substance.
According to Dr Sridhar, “Alcohol consumption is the world’s third largest risk factor for health burdens in middle-income countries, which constitute almost half of the worlds population, it is the greatest risk”.
Around 4% of all deaths worldwide are due to alcohol, which equals to 2.5 million lives lost. Sridhar argues, with such a large impact on global health, alcohol consumption should be more tightly monitored.
“The existing WHO Global Strategy to Reduce Harmful Use of Alcohol is a good start, as it lists ten key action areas and recommends policy interventions. But this is a portfolio of useful information and policy tips, not a binding document. The recommendations should be turned into legal requirements. Much more could and should be done”, she adds.
As the United Nations agency for world health, WHO has the ability to develop legally binding conventions, yet Dr Sridhar points out that this power is underused and is reluctant to use this legislative opportunity.
By using the power of international law, the WHO could be far heavier handed in ensuring member states committed to a formal agreement, provided shared financial and technical assistance and regulated reporting on alcohol control. Such a format already exists on tobacco control – one of only two areas where the WHO has used international law to commit governments to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco.
Sridhar concludes, “The WHO is the only body with the legitimacy and authority to proactively promote health through the use of international law. It needs to do so”,
Read more at www.nature.com/
