Strategy underlines effectiveness of policies regarding pricing, availability and marketing of alcohol
Alcohol Action Ireland, the national charity for alcohol-related issues, today backed the World Health Organisation’s strategy to reduce the harms from alcohol.
Director Fiona Ryan said: “This is an important step that recognizes the impact of alcohol-related harms and provides a strategy for tackling them.
“Ireland is unfortunately familiar with all forms of alcohol-related harm and pays a heavy price for that familiarity.”
One of the key elements of the strategy is reducing the population’s exposure to alcohol marketing, particularly young people’s.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) strategy underlines the need to limit the volume of alcohol marketing in order to decrease alcohol-related harm.
The WHO Global Alcohol Strategy recommends the following policy options and interventions:
- setting up regulatory or co-regulatory frameworks, preferably with a legislative basis, and supported when appropriate by self-regulatory measures, for alcohol marketing by:
regulating the content and the volume of marketing
regulating direct or indirect marketing in certain or all media
regulating sponsorship activities that promote alcoholic beverages
restricting or banning promotions in connection with activities targeting
young people
regulating new forms of alcohol marketing techniques, for instance social
media
- development by public agencies or independent bodies of effective systems of surveillance of marketing of alcohol products
- setting up effective administrative and deterrence systems for infringements on marketing restrictions.
Note to editors:
Alcohol Action Ireland works to create awareness around alcohol-related harms in Ireland. We take a population health approach which means we promote policies to improve the health of the entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups.
For more information contact Alcohol Action Ireland: (01) 878 0610 or 087 219 5723
