Not Invented Here (2): alcohol

Doctors have been advising people to have several days without alcohol each week for decades. It is sound advice because, as the British Liver Trust says, ‘it is simple and easy to understand, reduces the overall number of units that you drink each week, helps prevent alcohol dependency and importantly for liver health gives your liver a rest and a chance to rejuvenate.’ In 2011, Ian Gilmore, the chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, advised drinkers to have ‘two to three alcohol-free days a week’. In 2012, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee said that ‘people should be advised to take at least two drink-free days a week’. In 2016, the Chief Medical Officer said that ‘a good way’ for people to reduce their alcohol consumption was to have ‘several drink-free days each week’. None of this was remotely controversial until the alcohol education charity DrinkAware partnered with Public Health England (PHE) in 2018 to launch the ‘Drink Free Days’ campaign. Aimed at drinkers aged between 40 and 64, it advertised on radio and digital platforms and provided an app to help people monitor their alcohol consumption.

You might think that public health groups would be delighted to see a well known charity put its time and money into encouraging drinkers to consume less alcohol. But you would be wrong. DrinkAware is funded by donations from alcohol producers and retailers, and this was enough to make the aforementioned Ian Gilmore resign as co-chair of PHE’s alcohol leadership board and write an article titled ‘Public Health England’s capture by the alcohol industry’. An open letter opposing any collaboration between PHE and Drinkaware was signed by 332 academics, some of whom threatened to stop working with PHE if it did not part ways with the charity.

 

Read the rest at the IEA Substack.