Public health implications of alcohol production and trade

Abstract

In recent years, alcohol-related health and social problems have become an increasing cause of concern in many developing and developed countries. That concern has not been confined to individual countries, but has also found expression at the international level. In this study, available data on the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages are analysed with a view to drawing public health conclusions that might have a practical application in national and international efforts to reduce the impact of alcohol-related problems. In order to give as complete and comparable a picture as possible of global trends in production and consumption, data have been drawn from a variety of official international statistical reports and trade publications. Wherever possible, these data have been analysed by country and by region over a 20-year period. Data for the three main beverage types - beer, wine, and distilled spirits - have been analysed separately, since production and consumption trends are far from identical for different beverages. Trends in production and consumption, although interesting from the point of view of economic development, would be of limited value either to WHO or to those engaged in national health planning, unless they were shown to be clearly linked to public health issues. A theme which runs through this study, therefore, is that the association between trends in alcohol consumption and trends in alcohol-related problems is strong enough to justify viewing alcohol production as an activity that has inevitable public health implications. The nature of this association between consumption and alcohol-related problems is discussed, with a view to demonstrating how and in what circumstances public health issues are raised. Similarly, the factors influencing production trends are analysed with a view to identifying which of them are capable of working for rather than against public health.