Alcohol, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Markets and Companies

Based on the latest cancer statistics, after tobacco, alcohol is one of the most important lifestyle-related risk factors for cancer. Alcohol has been identified as a leading risk factor for death and disability globally, accounting for 3.8% of death and 4.6% of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost.

“When we think of other social problems, like for instance HIV/AIDS there is nobody who is interested in extending this problem,” said Lauri Beekmann, Secretary General of NordAN “With legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, there are huge industries that work to protect their financial interests. What to learn from fight against tobacco lobby and how to implement that knowledge into advocacy? This is one question that we are asking in Riga.”

The growing evidence and Global Burden of Disease Study suggests alcohol use is among the most harmful risk factors for death and disability globally. In Baltic States alcohol use ranks the major preventable health risk factor among men and women aged 15-49. These include deaths caused directly by chronic alcohol use as well as those, especially among youth and adults, due to acute alcohol intoxication, e.g. deaths due to road traffic accidents and other types of injuries. In economic terms damage done by alcohol by far outweighs the country's income from alcohol taxes, allocated workplaces or other potential benefits.

In Latvia there are more than one thousand deaths annually due to alcohol use, which with appropriate measures could be prevented. Several studies suggest that only about 1 in 10 of those in need for an intervention to reduce alcohol use in Latvia get the service they need (whether it is a brief intervention, structured treatment or prevention).

Over the last decades Latvia has undergone major societal and economic changes and has shown support for developing alcohol policies that aim to reduce harms from alcohol use for public good.

The conference's theme aims to gather researchers, civil society members and decision makers to learn from the experience of other areas such as tobacco control for a comprehensive evidence-based alcohol policy in the region free from economic interests of the industry.

Among the speakers are Florence Berteletti from the The Smoke Free Partnership, dr Nick Sheron from University of Southampton and Tim Colehan from the International Air Transport Association to speak about IATA´s resolution regarding unruly air passenger behavior. And a full list of speakers from different Nordic and Baltic countries.

NordAN was established in September 2000 as a network of non governmental, voluntary organizations who all worked to reduce the consumption of alcohol and other drugs and who supported a restrictive alcohol and drug policy and who did not receive contributions from the commercial alcohol industry. A network with 90 member organisations from all Nordic and Baltic countries is a member of the European Alcohol and Health Forum and European Alcohol Policy Alliance.

Conference programme: http://la8021.wix.com/nordan2014#!place/ct0s