Quanto costano alla società i danni dell'alcol?
EUROPEAN PRESS REPORT: HANGOVER COSTS € 155.8 BILLION A YEAR
Euractiv has reported on the cost of alcohol to the society and the lack of action from the EU to reduce it.
Employee hangovers related to the holiday season are expensive for EU businesses and societies as a whole. According to a review of the academic literature done by the Toronto-based Centre for Addition and Mental Health (CAMH) on behalf of the Commission, alcohol attributable social costs are estimated at up to €155.8 billion a year in Europe.
CAMH said that there are many social and economic burdens resulting from the effects of alcohol on individuals, families, workplaces, and society, and that these effects add up to a staggering number of alcohol attributable social costs.
An average adult (aged 15+ years) in the EU consumes 12.5 litres of pure alcohol, or nearly three drinks a day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated in a 2012-report. This is more than double the world average.
According to the BBC, UK researchers have estimated that holiday-season hangovers cost businesses almost £260 million (€331.7 million) a year. A survey of 1,500 people, conducted for the travel website lastminute.com, concluded that around 25% of employees work for fewer than four hours the day after an office Christmas party, while another 20% of workers will call in sick.
Currently, there is no effective hangover cure available, according Joris Verster, a professor at Utrecht University’s Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences who has published numerous scientific papers exploring possible hangover cure. She told the BBC that the only way to prevent hangovers "is to consume alcohol in moderation.”
The EU has tried to reduce alcohol-related harm in Europe by publishing a strategy in 2006 to help national governments, and other stakeholders, coordinate their action. However, the alcohol strategy was not updated in 2013, as originally intended. The new European, Commission, which took office on 1 November 2014, has so far not indicated that a new strategy is being implemented.
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copia integrale del testo si può trovare al seguente link:
http://www.eurocare.org/library/updates/european_press_reports_hangover_costs_155_8_billion_a_year
(Articolo pubblicato dal CUFRAD sul sito www.alcolnews.it)