title: U-turn Our Complacency in Dealing With the Potency of Alcohol.
abstract: This article argues that we need to reverse our complacency in dealing with alcohol, a drug that kills at least 2.7 million people worldwide annually. Ecological studies suggest that humans have evolved to be active and functional in relation to alcohol use; the present problem is that alcohol is too easily available in too potent a form. Toxicological analyses indicate that European adults consume, on average, 1,000 times the dose of alcohol that would normally be set for voluntary exposure to a consumed carcinogen. Political analyses find that a predominant driver of alcohol-related harm is the potency of business influence on policy making. Complacency would be reversed by compulsory warning labels that alcohol causes cancer; by holding producers accountable for the harm that their products cause; and, by governments moving toward a global legally binding agreement for alcohol.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Health and Society , Newcastle University , Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK.|b Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000401:mortality; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000401:mortality; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D011050:Policy Making; D011634:Public Health
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: alcohol; alcohol producers; human evolution; margin of exposure; potency; toxicology