DoA-Oct2015

Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ D-2015-01-2015

WMA DECLARATION
ON
ALCOHOL
Adopted by the 66th
WMA General Assembly, Moscow, Russia, October 2015
PREAMBLE
• The burden of disease and injury associated with alcohol consumption is a critical
challenge to global public health and development. The World Medical Association
offers this declaration on alcohol as its commitment to reducing excessive alcohol
consumption and as a means to support its members to assist them in promulgating
harm-reduction policies and other measures.
• There are significant health, social and economic problems associated with excessive
alcohol use. The harmful use of alcohol kills approximately 2.5 million people every
year (almost 4% of all deaths worldwide), and is the third leading risk factor for poor
health globally, accounting for 5.5% of disability-adjusted life years lost. The WMA
Statement on Reducing the Global Impact of Alcohol on Health and Society addresses
these problems in more detail.
• Effective alcohol harm-reduction policies and measures will include legal and
regulatory measures that target overall alcohol consumption in the population, as well
as health and social policy interventions that specifically target high-risk drinkers,
vulnerable groups and harms to people affected by those who consume alcohol.
• There are many evidence-based alcohol policies and prevention programmes that are
effective in reducing the health, safety and socioeconomic problems attributable to
harmful use of alcohol. However many countries have relatively weak alcohol policies
and prevention programmes that are ineffective at protecting health and safety, and
preventing harm. International public health advocacy and partnerships are needed to
strengthen and support the ability of governments and civil society worldwide to
commit to, and deliver on, reducing the harmful use of alcohol.
Health professionals have an important role to play in preventing, treating and
mitigating alcohol-related harm, using effective preventive and therapeutic
interventions.
• The World Medical Association has a leadership role to encourage and support the
development and implementation of evidence-based national alcohol policies by
promoting and facilitating partnerships, information exchange and health policy
capacity building.
D-2015-01-2015½ Moscow
Alcohol

OBJECTIVES
In developing policy, the WMA recommends focusing on the following broad objectives:
1. Strengthen health systems to identify and improve a country’s capacity to develop
policy and lead actions that target excessive alcohol consumption.
2. Promote the development and evaluation in all countries of national alcohol strategies
which are comprehensive, evidence-based and include measures to address the supply,
distribution, sale, advertising and promotion of alcohol.
3. Through government health departments, accurately measure the health burden
associated with alcohol consumption through the collection of sales data,
epidemiological data, and per capita consumption figures.
4. Support and promote the role of health and medical professionals in early identification,
screening and treatment of harmful alcohol use.
5. Dispel myths and dispute alcohol control strategies that are not evidence-based.
6. Reduce the impact of harmful alcohol consumption in at risk populations.
7. Foster multi-disciplinary collaboration and coordinated intersectoral action.
8. Raise awareness of alcohol-related harm through public education and information
campaigns.
PRIORITIES
The following priorities are suggested for WMA members, national medical associations
and governments in the development of integrated and comprehensive policy and
legislative responses.
Regulate affordability, accessibility and availability
Pricing policies
Increase alcohol prices, through volumetric taxation of products based on their alcohol
strength, and other proven pricing mechanisms, to reduce alcohol consumption at the
population level, particularly in heavy drinkers and high risk groups.
Accessibility and availability
Regulate access to, and availability of, alcohol by limiting the hours and days of sale, the
number and location of alcohol outlets and licensed premises, and the imposition of a
minimum legal drinking age. Governments should tax and control the production and
consumption of alcohol, with licensing that emphasises public health and safety and
empowers licensing authorities to control the total availability of alcohol in their
jurisdictions.
Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ½ D-2015-01-2015

Public authorities must strengthen the prohibition of selling to minors and must
systematically request proof of age before alcohol can be purchased in shops or bars.
Regulation of non-commercial alcohol
The production and consumption of non-commercial forms of alcohol, such as home
brewing, illicit distillation, and illegal diversion alcohol to avoid taxes, should be curtailed.
Reduce harmful alcohol use
Regulation of alcohol marketing
Alcohol marketing should be restricted to prevent the early adoption of drinking by young
people and to minimise their alcohol consumption. Regulatory measures range from
wholesale bans and restrictions on measures that promote excessive consumption, to
restrictions on the placement and content of alcohol advertising that is attractive to young
people. There is no evidence that industry self-regulation and voluntary codes are
successful at protecting vulnerable populations from exposure to alcohol marketing and
promotion.
Increase public awareness of harmful alcohol consumption through product labelling
and public awareness campaigns.
In conjunction with other measures, social marketing campaigns should be implemented to
educate the public about harmful alcohol use, to support drink driving policies, and to target
the behaviour of specific populations at high risks of harm. Public awareness measures can
also include health warning labels on alcohol products, mandated by an independent
regulatory body.
The role of health and medical services in prevention
Health, medical and social services professionals should be provided with the training,
resources and support necessary to prevent harmful use of alcohol and treat people with
alcohol dependence, including routinely providing brief advice to motivate high-risk
drinkers to moderate their consumption. Health professionals also play a key role in
education, advocacy and research. Specialised treatment and rehabilitation services should
be available and affordable for alcohol dependent individuals and their families.
Drink driving measures
Key drink-driving deterrents should be implemented, which include a strictly enforced
legal maximum blood alcohol concentration for drivers of no more than 50mg/100ml,
supported by social marketing campaigns and the power of authorities to impose immediate
sanctions.
Respond to the alcohol industry
Limiting the role of the alcohol industry in alcohol policy development
D-2015-01-2015½ Moscow
Alcohol

The commercial priorities of the alcohol industry are in direct conflict with the public
health objective of reducing overall alcohol consumption. Internationally, the alcohol
industry is frequently included in alcohol policy development by national authorities, but
the industry is often active in opposing and weakening effective alcohol policies.
Ineffective and non-evidence-based alcohol control strategies promoted by the alcohol
industry and the social organisations that the industry sponsors should be countered. The
role of the alcohol industry in the reduction of alcohol-related harm should be confined to
their roles as producers, distributors and marketers of alcohol, and not include alcohol
policy development or health promotion.