WHO urges greater control over alcohol sales

COPENHAGEN (EFE).— The European regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) urged European governments to adopt tough policies to reduce alcohol consumption.

These types of drinks are linked to tens of thousands of cancer deaths each year and millions in economic losses .

Measures such as increasing alcohol taxes or minimum prices, raising the minimum purchase or consumption age, reducing sales hours or volumes, banning advertising, or establishing state sales monopolies have proven effective in reducing consumption.

This was stated by WHO-Europe and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

The European Union (EU) is the subregion with the highest alcohol consumption in the world, and cancer is the leading cause of death there.

In 2020, alcohol caused a total of 111,300 new cases of cancer—70% of them in men—and 93,000 deaths in the EU.

According to 2018 data, the cost of premature deaths from alcohol-related cancer was €4.6 billion.

A figure that would increase by "tens of billions" more if expenses for hospitalizations, injuries, violence, and lost productivity were taken into account.

A statement from Gundo Weiler , director of prevention and health promotion at WHO-Europe , based in Copenhagen , said:

“The WHO European Region, and EU countries in particular, are paying too high a price for alcohol in preventable cancers and broken families, costing taxpayers billions.”

Weiler emphasized that although some consider alcohol a cultural heritage, "illness, death, and disability should not be normalized as part of European culture."