News
- Alcohol policy priorities for the next parliament
- Young drinkers believe prominent health warnings on alcohol could boost risk awareness
- Australian ministers agree to visible pregnancy warning
- Alcohol and the Workplace Effective Interventions
- Alcohol sales and consumption in Scotland during the pandemic
- Invitation to Tender - Alcohol Marketing Evidence Review
- How can we prevent alcohol deaths?
- Alcohol Deaths and Minimum Unit Pricing
- Young Scots show support for restrictions on alcohol marketing
- YoungScot Health Panel report on alcohol marketing and harm
- New release of alcohol related hospital admissions
- Better alcohol labelling – A way to boost awareness of the risk between alcohol and cancer?
- Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support
- Almost half of Scots in favour of minimum unit pricing
- NICE Guidelines on FASD Surveillance or Support?
- Leading health charities call for action in Scotland
- Health experts campaign for better understanding of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- Health experts call for alcohol labelling overhaul
- Survey shows Scots lockdown drinking rise caused by stress
- Alcohol Focus Scotland welcomes new WHO report on alcohol pricing
- Statistical analysis of off-trade alcohol sales in the year following MUP
- Alcohol Focus Scotland Review of statements of licensing policy 2018 to 2023
- Scotland needs to continue long-term focus on alcohol
- We need to continue long-term focus on alcohol
- Scots report changing drinking patterns during coronavirus lockdown
- Time to Blow the Whistle on Alcohol Sport Sponsorship
- Five top tips for working remotely
- New evidence demonstrates that alcohol ads lead to youth drinking
- Alcohol sales fall in first year of MUP
- First study published into under 18 drinkers post MUP
- Commission on Alcohol Harm calls for evidence
- Two years on Are annual functions reports reaching their potential?
- We need to do more to protect our children and young people
- Alcohol related hospital admissions for 2018 to 2019
- Hitting the right note in training
- Minimum unit pricing update
- Scottish primary children call for action on alcohol
- New Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support Now Available from AFS
- Its time to tell us whats in our drinks
- A home for Rory
- Making a bad impression - blog post
- Alcohol sales and MUP
- Alcohol-specific deaths 2018
- Five tips for upping the engagement factor
- Alcohol marketing and children debate in the Scottish Parliament
- Lowest alcohol sales in 25 years
- Research into fall in violence
- The Children's Parliament investigates an alcohol-free childhood
- Five tips for training delivery nerves
- Minimum unit pricing one year on
- More about sales data
- A family of resources it is all about prevention, education and resilience
- AFS publish Review of Licensing Board Annual Functions Reports 2017-2018
- Marketing unmasked dispelling the myths and taking a stand
- No place for alcohol marketing in sport
- Five pitfalls to avoid in evaluating training
- Scotland publishes first UK guidelines for diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
- The Alcohol Framework 2018 Preventing Harm
- Scotlands new drug and alcohol strategy launched
- AFS welcome new alcohol strategy
- Recent reporting on alcohol sales data
- Cross-Party Group Improving Scotland's health: 2021 and beyond October 2018
- Diageo is failing to provide latest guidelines on their products
- Drinks companies keeping consumers in dark about risky drinking
- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Alcohol-specific deaths remain at very high levels
- Oh Lila goes digital
- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Walker's crisp ad exposes children to alcohol marketing
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Focus on link between alcohol and obesity
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Last Christmas for heavily discounted alcohol
- Scotland's licensing system needs clearer direction
- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Reflections on GAPC 2017
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Quarter of Scots drink above guidelines
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Budget: No change in alcohol duty
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
- Chancellor urged to tackle cheap, strong cider in Budget
- Online help for families affected by alcohol
- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
- SWA granted leave to appeal minimum pricing
- Drink drive warning
- Scottish Greens call for action on alcohol marketing
- Scottish Government receives European alcohol award
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- Half of alcohol being sold under 50p per unit
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Alcohol and mental health are closely linked
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- Alcohol sold at pocket money prices
- Scotland has so much to gain from reducing how much we drink
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- Public health must prevail over big business
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
- Price check reveals cheap cost of strong alcohol
- Sales increase underlines need for minimum pricing
- Time to kick alcohol out of sport
- Alcohol linked with stomach cancer
- AFS calls for compulsory health warnings on alcoholic drinks
- Are supermarkets 'responsible retailers' when it comes to alcohol?
- Scottish health charities call for excise duty rise to tackle cheap alcohol
- Alcohol campaigners unite to call for stronger protection from alcohol advertising to children
- New resource for people concerned about alcohol in their community
- Minimum pricing decision delayed until summer
- No completely 'safe' level of drinking
- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol fuels ambulance assaults
- 82% of Scots agree drink driving is unacceptable
- Scotland's alcohol strategy - what next?
- Scotland leads way in evidence-based alcohol policy
- New report reveals impact of alcohol on emergency services
- Alcohol: a global concern
Making a bad impression - blog post
David Robertson joined Alcohol Focus Scotland as our new new Senior Policy Development Coordinator with a remit for pursuing an alcohol-free childhood. Here he blogs about his initial insights into the concept of an alcohol-free childhood.
It was odd to discover just how much I am part of Scotland’s drinking culture. I actually don’t drink much myself – perhaps three or four units a month and yet until I started at Alcohol Focus Scotland I did not fully appreciate how much I took for granted in terms of what I tolerated, accepted or ignored. Obviously I have been exposed to comparisons between alcohol and tobacco and known that about the 4000 deaths per year are attributed to alcohol, that alcohol related harms costs us around £3.6bn per year; the big impact stats.
What I have become aware of in my first month is just how pervasive are the messages to drink within our culture and how we, collectively, make excuses for the ubiquity of those messages and the “must make room for alcohol” messages. A recent trip to a certificate 15 film provided a count of five ads for alcohol and that was after the stall at the ticket-check which was selling prosecco on special offer. Cinemas never used to have alcohol licences, there has been a steady creep in both visibility and availability of alcohol in recent years. I just noticed!
As someone who has taught health education in school, what else has passed me by?
The degree to which children are impacted by alcohol imagery is quite astounding. Compare that with the now invisibility of tobacco! The Children’s Parliament are working on a report detailing what children see and feel about alcohol. Children talked about how they see alcohol from breakfast (when they open the fridge in the morning), through the school commute (street posters, bus ads and shop windows) to grocery shopping (aisles packed with products) to adverts on the TV and parents sitting with a beer at home.
Like many Scots I was brought up in a household where it was felt appropriate to introduce teens to alcohol on a gradual basis. The idea behind this seems logical. By having teens witness parents and family drinking alcohol in a responsible manner and experiencing alcohol in a safe home environment, teens will learn to drink responsibly. Whilst many would agree that this cultural transmission of responsible drinking has stood the test of time, the evidence points in a different direction. Evidence shows that children and young people who frequently witness alcohol consumption as normal practice have an increased risk of consuming greater quantities of alcohol and at a younger age.
Perhaps I was less surprised to discover the research that shows that the earlier children are introduced to alcohol, the more likely they are to exhibit problem drinking in later life. What children see when they see adults drink is not necessarily what we hope they see. Children report increasing worry, concern and embarrassment in line with increases in very moderate drinking. Children do not seem to differentiate between seeing parents tipsy and drunk. Parents often assume that their children do not notice their drinking but children can say why adults drink; to feel happier, to relax, to help cope with a hard day to get over a long day with the kids. This is the learning they take into adulthood. Is that what we would wish?
So, over the next year I shall be working to ensure greater awareness of the impact that alcohol marketing has on children, so that the need to limit that impact is taken account of in legislation.
AFS will be facilitating a national discussion on the way children can be affected by other people’s drinking, even at low-risk levels.
More on all this in my next blog. To get in touch with David email David.Robertson@alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk