Govt will boost alcohol education

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 8

Govt will boost alcohol education

PA Auckland The Government will increase support for alcohol abuse prevention programmes in the light of new research which puts the annual cost of abuse in New Zealand at $9OO million. The Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, said yesterday that he would arrange more finance for the Alcohol Liquor Advisory Council’s moderate-drinking programme. Dr Bassett said the programme would provide public information about the dangers of excess drinking and promote moderate drinking. “I intend to be consistent with A.L.A.C. and work in very closely with it,” he said.

The public relations officer of A.L.A.C., Ms Diana Burns, said the council was “absolutely delighted” Dr Bassett was sympathetic to its cause. Professor Tony Rayner, of the University of Canter-

bury, and Dr Jane Chetwynd, of the Christchurch Clinical School of Medicine, conducted the study which showed that alcohol abuse cost New Zealand about $650 million a year in lost production at work.

This figure represented about 70 per cent of the total annual cost of alcohol abuse, which they put at $9OO million. They said the figure was calculated using estimates for reduced efficiency at work and jobs lost because of alcohol, and lost production because of sickness and early death caused by heavy drinking. The southern regional officer of A.L.A.C., Mr Geoff Elvy, said yesterday that alcohol was a “bad investment" for New Zealand.

Mr Elvy said that the 1982 Treasury estimate for revenue from sales tax on alcohol was $390 million. “Quite clearly, as a purely economic measure, it is very costly to the country to maintain these alcohol

problems by continuing with our present system of the way we sell and treat alcohol,” he said.

“It is time that we looked very carefully at preventing the problems arising from alcohol.”

Mr Elvy said the $9OO million figure reached in the study did not include the social costs such as the breakdown of marriages, hospital care, treatment of alcoholics, and psychiatric care.

“We have really got to look at the whole issue ,of alcohol as a public health problem,” he said. A.L.A.C. had asked the liquor industry to help promote alternatives to excessive drinking by setting up moderation programmes. The programmes were aimed at lowering the total per capita consumption of alcohol. However, the council could not do the main prevention programmes by itself and it would need the help of the Health Department.