NOSAM IN ENGLISH - NEWS IN BRIEF: On this page you find some alcohol-related news from the Nordic countries, and our news archive can be found on the right.
Contact the editor: mikaela.lindeman@nordicwelfare.org
Sist endret 27/02/2010 av Mikaela Lindeman   JANUARY 2010 19/1 Norweigan youngsters drink so much they risk physical damages
The human brain keeps developing up to 25 years of age. Young people who drink a lot run risk of disturbing the normal development, according to child psychiatrist Arve Beach Ingelheim. A health study including 8983 youngsters from Norway shows that young people who drink large amounts of alcohol indeed suffer from nausea, muscle pain and headaches more frequently than their peers.
11/1 Older, Finnish women drink more alcohol
According to an article by Salme Alström and Pia Mäkelä, in “Yhteiskuntapolitiikka” alcohol-related problems have become more common for women in Finland who are 60-69 years of age. Between 1998 and 2007 the number of women 60 years and older who died of alcohol-related diseases and alcohol poisoning went up by +94%.. For men over 60 years, the increase was 43%. The number of elderly who died of alcohol-related accidents and violence increased with 23%.
7/1 Extra strong Danish beer released
A Danish micro brewery called Mikkeller produces a beer with 17,6 vol.% alc.content. The beer can be purchased in several shops and bars in Denmark. The beer is called “Big worst”, and is the strongest beer ever produced in Denmark.
DECEMBER 2009 30/12 Cafés might get the right to serve alcohol in Sweden, due to a change in the law
When Sweden’s new Alcohol Law is implemented in the summer of 2010, a change of alcohol availability might be expected. Today a restaurant is required to serve “cooked food” if they’ll get the right to sell alcohol, but the wording in the law is expected to change from “cooked” to “cooked or prepared food”. This could be interpreted as food often sold in cafés such as salads or baguettes would count as “cooked or prepared food”. Experts claim the term “prepared food” is too vague.
23/12 The Christmas holidays can turn many people into alcoholics
For people having small or indicating signs of alcohol problems the holidays could have devastating effects. Vinmonopolet in Norway is selling almost twice as much alcohol during the month of December as other months, it seems like beer, schnapps and wine are part of most Norwegian (and Nordic) holidays.
9/12 A first descision made in the Viinikauppa.com trial
Finland: partial decision taken by Viinikauppa.com question There is an ongoing trial, whether private persons may order alcohol online and what the conditions of such a purchase will have to be. Helsinki District Court has now decided that the alcohol, 140 000 litres of wine that has been kept in the customs shall be released. The bottles can be collected by the customers, if they can show a receipt and are willing to pay taxes for their goods.
The final ruling and descision in the Viinikauppa.com trial will be delivered in February 2010.
NOVEMBER 2009 30/11 Alcoholprices on the rise in Estonia
Alcohol will become more expensive in Estonia in the year 2010. A 10 % price rise will be implemented, alongside with a pricerise on tobacco, petrol and electricity.
23/11 Russia plans on introducing minimum-pricing on vodka
A Russian government commission approved plans of minimum pricing of vodka. If the idea of minimum pricing get approved, the price of the cheapest bottle of vodka on the market today will rise by 50%. This means that 0.5 liters of vodka would cost 89 rubles (a little over 2 euros). President Medveded has stated he is openly worried about the high alcohol consumption in Russia. Read more here .
13/11 A growing number of young people in Denmark have experienced alcohol poisoning, according to a Norwegian study
Since the price reduction in autumn 2003, when Denmark reduced the tax on spirits by almost 50%, the number of young people under 16 years who have been hospitalized because of alcohol poisoning has increased by 26%. Ingeborg Rossow, a researcher at Sirus in Norway says it just shows how much significant price reductions affects vulnerable groups such as young people. The study is written by Rossow, Kim Bloomfield and Thor Norström and focuses on alcohol-related injuries in Denmark between 2003 and 2005. Read more here about the study, published in European Addiction Research here .
9/11 Alcohol causes cancer
Alcohol is transformed into acetaldehyde in the human body, which in turn can cause various types of cancer. IARC Cancer Research Institute has published a report which states that alcohol can cause cancer, just like just like tobacco. See the the IARC's press release here .
6/11 Sweden: Consumption in the third quarter of 2009
SoRAD, Center for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, has published a report on how much registered and unregistrerad alcohol was consumed in Sweden during the third quarter of 2009. The figures are based on the documented alcohol sales as well as interviews with people regarding their un-registered consumption. Systembolaget's sales rose by 11% compared to the corresponding period last year. Travel percentage importation and illicit distilling decreased remarkably. The total alcohol consumption was virtually unchanged from the third quarter of 2008. The report, which can be found here also shows how the total consumption changed over the last two 12 months periods.
OCTOBER 2009 14/10 Legal or illegal to buy alcohol online ?
Hundreds of Finns have already bought alcohol online from viinikauppa.com. Now it is up to the court to decide whether it is legal or not. It IS legal to order alcohol online from abroad and then transport the purchased items home. It is also legal to hire somebody to do the transportation for you. The illegal, or possibly illegal action viinikauppa.com has done is to both sell and transport alcohol to the customers. The judge are now to decide whether the business is allowed or not. If it’s allowed it could possibly be the end of the state monopoly Alko.
13/10 Higher age limits in Denmark?
Health minister Jakob Axel Nielsen is worried about the Danish alcohol culture, and wants the age limit for purchasing strong spirits to rise from 16 to 18. Nielsen also points out that the parents of today must take more responsibility and become more aware of their teenagers drinking habits.
13/10 Violent, drunk mothers form a new problem group in Finland
Last year the Finnish police got 400 reports on alcoholic mothers acting violently against their own children. Typically these reports came from kinder gardens, schools or the social services. The average conductor of this kind f crime is a single mother with alcohol- and financial problems who takes her frustration out on the kids.
12/10 A majority wants the BAC level to be 0,2 ‰ in Finland
In Finland the maximum level of blood alcohol concentration allowed when driving a car is 0,5 ‰. According to a survey conducted by newspaper “Karjalainen”, a majority of 2/3 wanted to lower the level to 0,2 ‰. Women were in general more positive towards lowering the BAC level. 1000 people took part in the survey.
08/10 Greenlanders drink less alcohol
Alcohol consumption in Greenland has been dramatically reduced over the last 20 years. The average consumption has gone down from 22 liters of pure alcohol /person/year to 10, 55 liters of pure alcohol/person/year, which is remarkable. Today Greenlanders drink less than Danes. According to authorities the secret can be traced down to two things: preventive work and a general change of attitude.
05/10 How safe are the Nordic roads? European Transport Safety Counsil publishes new rapport on road safety performance.
Alcohol related deaths in traffic have become slightly more common in the Nordic countries over the last decennium, the number increases by 1.2 percent per year whereas the trend points at the other direction in the rest of Europe. The rapport shows that alcohol related deaths occur most commonly in Denmark, followed by Finland and Iceland. Read "How far from zero? Benchmarking of road safety performance in the Nordic countries" here .
SEPTEMBER 2009 23/09 EU expert meeting on alcohol and health
In late September a conference on Alcohol and Health was being organized by The Swedish Precidency of the EU. You can find information about the meeting here and here.
16/09 Under the influence. A rapport from British Medical Association
The British alcohol industry has a budget of £800m a year and a wide range of ways to reach potential consumers. "Under the influence" takes a closer look on how alcohol commercials affects young people and what kind of measures can be used to protect them. Under the influence can be found here.
14/09 Carlsberg will not sponsor football team Liverpool anymore
Liverpool has decided to switch sponsors and end the 17-year old contract with Danish brewery Carlsberg. Read more here: marketmagazine.co.uk .
02/09 New OECD rapport: Doing better for the children
How are the children and young people of today? The new rapport from OECD focuses on well-being and health from many different perspectives. Chapter two, “Comparative child well-being across the OECD” deals with aspects such as education, health and risk behavior. The rapport also deals with the question of adolescence drinking. According to the rapport the situation is worst in Great Britain since 33 % of the youngsters aged 13-15 in Great Britain admits that they have been drunk more than two times. Young people in Denmark are not far behind – 31,6 % says they have been drunk more than twice. This means the Danish youngsters drink more than their Nordic peers. The corresponding number for Finland was 28 %, Sweden 15,7 % and Norway 15,5 %. Read more about the rapport here.
01/09 Alcohol makes it harder to study
A new rapport from The Danish Board of Public Health (and others) deals with how the Danish youngsters deal with alcohol. One third of the 1539 young Danes participating in the study said that alcohol has a negative effect on their ability to perform well in school or at work. Young people who drink large amounts of alcohol have a hard time concentrating at school, and they are also more likely to play truant. The study also deals with other negative side effects of alcohol. Of all the young men in the study, one in ten admitted to having experienced some severe alcohol related problems as a cause o drinking such as accidents, hospital visits, getting in trouble with the police or driving drunk. On the positive side, smoking tobacco is no longer considered cool among the young Danes in the study, fewer and fewer smokes on a daily basis. The rapport can be found here.
AUGUST 2009 27/08 Finnish women drink more and more
Finnish men still drink more alcohol than Finnish women, but the gap is slowly closing. A rapport from THL that will be published in the magazine Yhteiskuntapolitiikka points to new drinking habits among women in Finland. Researchers believe that society has adapted a far more liberal view of women drinking and this has, combined with lower taxes, led to more and more women drinking to become intoxicated. During the last 8 years the heavy drinking has gone up from 26 % to 42 % (heavy drinking in this case = a blood alcohol concentration of 1 ‰ or more). Especially older women have started to drink more.
27/08/09 Alcohol is a bigger burden for society than drugs.
A Norweigan researcher, Ingeborg Rossow, claims that alcohol related harm cost society more than drug related problems. Roughly, there are 300 000 adults in Norway who consumes really large quantities of alcohol, (about 40 litres of pure alcohol per person and year). There are about 8000 – 12 000 people addicted to amphetamine and heroin, and an unknown number of people addicted to other kinds of drugs. The World Health Organisation has done a study on how many lost, healthy years (caused by people dying very young etc.) can be tracked down to specific reasons and concluded that alcohol causes 12 % of all the years gone astray. Drugs are the reason for only 1 % of all the lost years. In her rapport Rossow also compares to what degree alcohol and drugs are a burden for the health care system and how they cause crime and social problems. The rapport can be found here.
13/8 President Medvedev worried about the alcohol consumption in Russia
The alcohol consumption in Russia is very high - 18 litres of pure alcohol is being consumed per person in one year. President Dmitry Medvedev is openly worried about the situation and tells the news agency Reuters that "Alcoholism is a national disaster in our country". Read more about the Russian drinking patterns and all the harm alcohol causes society here.
12/8 Non-alcohic beer gains popularity in Sweden.
During the first six months of the year 2009 Carlsberg sold 37 % more non-alcoholic beer compared to the six first months of 2008. Non-alcoholic beer is especially popular among health concious customers who have learned to appriciate the advantages of the non-alcoholic products.
03/08 Both Vinmonopolet and Systembolaget sold more alcoholic beverages than before
Vinmonopolet and Systembolaget have had a lucrative year so far. During the first six months of 2009 the monopolies sold more alcohol compared to the same period the previous year. In Norway, the total half-year sales went up by 4.1% and in Sweden by 9,3 %. The statistic figures for Sweden can be found here and the numbers for Norway are here.
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