LETTER Issue No. 31 Summer 2007 210mm 180mm 153mm To your health? Exploring what’s safe, sensible and social www.vichealth.vic.gov.au CONteNTS VicHealth Letter Issue No. 31 Summer 2007 Cartoon with permission: LEUNIG 04 Overview: IT’S time 13 promoting a 20 gETTINg SMaSHEd to Tackle OuR dRINkINg way HaS its pRIcE uNHEalthy dRINkINg Of LIfE Given the role that alcohol plays in our cultuRE Millions are spent every year on alcohol society, is it any wonder young people drink? How is the image of drinking stacking up advertising. Are we doing enough to Robyn Thompson against the lived experience? protect our young from its influence? Melissa Sweet Adam Ferguson 21 yOuNg people TaLk abOuT dRINkINg 08 aLcohol is a 16 locaL governments The media has had a lot to say about it, bRaIN-altering acT ON aLcOHOL but what do young people think about SubstaNcE wITH It’s more than managing crowds… it is their drinking? HIgH socIaL costs long term, all-of-council commitment to Ashlea Milner Adolescents who regularly binge drink workable alcohol strategies. may be more likely to have memory and Antony Balmain learning problems. 22 GREaT SpORTS kNOw Thea O’Connor 18 fERMENTINg cHaNgE THEIR bOuNDARIES Our cultural attitudes to alcohol are The VicHealth Official Supporter program 10 a LEgaL dRug being challenged: excessive drinking is targets the ‘after game drink’. buT no ordinaRy not inevitable. cOMMOdITy Peter Ryan Alcohol is a significant tax revenue and 23 VIcHEaLTH NEwS an increasing health issue. Our 20th anniversary and some Alicia Patterson award winners. COVER ILLUSTRATION: Madeleine Simson 2 2 VicHealthVicHealth Letter Letter foreword to your health? Homer Simpson has the unnerving capacity to get to the heart of society’s contemporary dilemmas. “Here’s to alcohol,” he enthuses, “the cause of, and answer to, all of life’s problems.” lcohol is Price – the products that cause the most harm should be entrenched in our the most expensive, via government levies and/or taxes. A society: we use it Place – the number of places, and particularly late to celebrate, commiserate, night venues, that supply alcohol should be limited and relax and socialise. closely monitored. However alcohol is an all Promotion – the promotion of alcohol products, especially too common companion of those most popular with kids such as ready-to-drink products, violence and injury, unsafe should be restricted and independently regulated; and messages sex, verbal abuse, crime, promoting alcohol to younger markets should be replaced with poor mental health, drug health-promoting messages on safer drinking. use, car smashes and Product – the alcohol content, flavouring, colouring, labelling, workplace absenteeism. and packaging of products should conform to agreed standards It seems the harms of that prevent the production of drinks that promote risky/high-risk alcohol are accelerating consumption or have appeal to kids. with a proliferation of Such a multi-pronged strategy will need sustained late night liquor licences and extensive promotion of alcohol commitment from local, State and Federal Governments, and the – particularly those most popular with kids. Today, we have support of community organisations, workplaces, and researchers. highest levels of risky drinking among young people in the The urgency of this cannot be stressed enough. As a WHO report past 20 years. on alcohol reminds us: ‘the difference between good and bad Last month Premier Brumby described alcohol as being alcohol policy is not an abstraction, but very often a matter of ‘the biggest social issue facing Victoria, and one of the life and death.’1 biggest threats to young Victorians.’ In this issue we begin to explore what ‘safe, sensible and His statement is significant – we can’t begin to fix social’ can be in the face of some very serious challenges. the problems posed by alcohol until there is a genuine acknowledgment that there is a problem. That won’t be Cheers? easy - after all alcohol features in most of our societal rituals and those who choose not to drink alcohol are viewed with some curiosity. The marketing success of alcohol also gives us some insights into addressing this challenge. Marketing theorists developed the ‘four Ps’ approach to frame successful marketing TODD HARPER strategies – price, product, place and promotion. Using these as Chief Executive Officer a guide, we can start to intuitively see ways to tackle the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation alcohol problem. 1. Babor et al 2003, Alcohol: No ordinary Commodity, World Health Organization. Summer 2007 3 feature: melissa sweet It’s time to tackle our unheaLthy drinking culture Drinking is glamorous, sexy and sporty. It is how Australians have a good time, whether celebrating birthdays, sporting victories or the end of the working week. his, at least, is the image promoted by most alcohol Violence related to excessive consumption is a major factor advertising and marketing. driving concern, with 22% of respondents to the 2004 National T In the real world, however, police, emergency service Household Drug Survey saying they’d been verbally abused in workers and health professionals have a very different the past year by someone affected by alcohol. understanding of the impact of the Australian way of drinking. For Victoria Police, reducing the level of alcohol-related They tell stories about teenage girls asking for the morning harm is a top priority. “It’s as important as drugs and organised after pill after another night they can’t remember, of young men crime,” says the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Kieran Walshe. smashed inside their cars, of fights outside pubs, and of younger “Alcohol is a significant cause of crime and anti-social activity and younger adults showing signs of addiction to alcohol. and we need to take steps to try and curb it.” These are just some of the more obvious symptoms of Mr Walshe cites figures showing that more than 7500 Australia’s drinking problem. While few are questioning the people are admitted to Australian hospitals because of right of adults to enjoy alcohol in alcohol-related assaults and that alcohol is involved in more moderation, there is a growing than 100 murders annually. chorus of alarm about the impact “Some research estimates that as many as 80% of calls for of excessive drinking, especially police assistance are alcohol-related,” he adds. among vulnerable groups such Mr Walshe believes that alcohol is also contributing to an as teenagers. increased rate of assaults in public places. Such assaults rose Concerns are being by 18% between 2002/03 and 2006/07 across the country. raised across many sections The concerns of police are backed by data suggesting of society, from worried increasing rates of problematic drinking, according to Dr Tanya parents to medical experts Chikritzhs, a Senior Research Fellow and Statistical Advisor at alarmed by increasing the National Drug Research Institute, at Curtin University of rates of alcohol-related Technology in Perth. With alcohol estimated to account for 13% hospitalisations, and of all deaths among Australians aged 14 to 17, Dr Chikritzhs is they are also reflected in particularly worried by the changing pattern of drinking among growing media coverage young people, especially teenage girls. of such problems. She says that between 1998 and 2001, the proportion of girls aged 14 to 17 who were drinking at levels considered risky for an adult soared from 1% to almost 10%. The latest figures, for 2004, are expected to show about 13% drink at risky levels. Similarly, the latest Australian Secondary Schools Survey shows that the proportion of 12- to 15-year-olds who drank in the week before the survey at above low-risk levels (in danger of short-term harm, such as violent assault, falls, pedestrian road injury) is greater than at any time in the past 20 years, Dr Chikritzhs adds. “We know that the earlier you start drinking and the more binge drinking that you do, the more likely you are to have problems in later life, such as brain injury and memory loss. People in early teenage years establish 4 VicHealth Letter drinking patterns they’re unable to shake off, and some carry those harmful drinking patterns into adulthood. We’re seeing a A legal drug but no ordinary commodity. new cohort of girls, with a higher prevalence of heavy drinking, who will eventually grow older, and ultimately face many chronic problems, such as alcohol dependency, liver failure and mental health issues.” Risky drinking is particularly pronounced in country communities, adds Associate Professor Paul Dietze from the Burnet Institute Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health Research and the Monash Institute of Health Services Research. “We’ve identified higher rates of consumption and harm in regional and rural areas and generally an increase in alcohol-caused hospitalisation rates,” he says. Associate Professor Dietze believes the findings reflect the central role of hotels, pubs and sporting clubs in rural and regional life. A National Drug Research Institute researcher has previously also described a heavy-drinking rural culture, based on the notion that ‘you’re a good bloke if you’re a good drinker’. Meanwhile, the hazards of excessive drinking are also highlighted in revised national guidelines released recently by the National Health and Medical Research Council for public comment. The proposed new Australian alcohol guidelines for low-risk drinking take a tougher stance than previous guidelines, and stress the risks to young people and other vulnerable groups, including the elderly, people with mental health problems and pregnant or breastfeeding women. They recommend that adults have two standard drinks or less on any one day and advise that not drinking at all is the safest option for those under 18 and for women who are pregnant, planning pregnancy or breastfeeding.