Is the drinks industry damaging democracy as well as health? Dr Nick Sheron, FRCP Royal College of Physicians Representative to the EU Alcohol and Health Forum Calling Time on Europe's Alcohol Problem, European Parliament, Brussels, 24 April 2013
Liver deaths in my unit in Southampton, most of the increase is alcohol related Nick Sheron, unpublished data
Bulgaria Finland Hungary Romania UnitedKingdom Austria France Italy Portugal Spain Greece Ireland Netherlands Norway Sweden Belgium Croatia CzechRepublic Denmark Germany Poland WHO – HFA data Changes in liver death rates in Europe
Linear regression of open source data, WHO-HFA 64% of the variation in EU liver mortality can be explained by differences in population level consumption of alcohol. R 2 = 0.64
Brandish & Sheron 2010
ONS data, N Sheron Clinical Medicine 2010 Beer Vodka
1992 Increasing wealth, Decreasing relative price Different retailers
ONS data, decennial supplements , N Sheron
Taxation v Minimum Unit Price (MUP) TaxationMUP Impact on all drinksImpact only cheapest drinks Impacts on pubs / bars No Impact on pubs / bars Impact proportional to consumptionImpact targeted to heavy drinkers
Taxation v Minimum Unit Price (MUP) TaxationMUP Revenue to governmentRevenue to industry Impact on all drinksImpact only cheapest drinks Impacts on pubs / bars No Impact on pubs / bars Scotland introduced MUP because they were unable to increase taxation The Scottish Nationalist Party did so AS A MANIFESTO POLICY COMMITMENT and subsequently won a landslide election victory
Weekly alcohol consumption in 381 liver patients in Southampton Median consumption in patients with alcohol related liver disease is equivalent of 4 bottles of vodka / week Half drink more…
Univ of Southampton data, N Sheron The actual impact of MUP on patients with liver disease (n= 143)
Univ of Southampton data, N Sheron Minimum unit price is an exquisitely targeted measure
One third of profitability comes from harmful drinkers Three quarters of profitability comes from hazardous and harmful drinkers UK Dept of Health data The Pareto principle 1/5 of consumers consume 4/5 of any product
X Minimum unit price targeted at heavy consumers who buy the cheapest alcohols