U.K. reports that the government is too much aligned with alcohol messaging and manufacturing continues to influence a new focus on alcohol, including citing campaigns that poise alcohol as having health benefits and cast aside its dangers. Other experts point out that scientific research to back any positive claims toward alcohol is lacking, and that the message that alcohol could improve health is escalated by manufactures. Campaigns geared toward youth drinking are also a focus of new scrutiny.

Editors at PLoS Medicine are speaking out against the campaign strategies used by alcohol companies and the organizations that stand behind them, according to a ScienceDaily posting. They are calling for more research into the effects of alcohol and a closer examination at how the public perceives consuming alcohol.

Among their recommendations are outlawing the use of alcohol ads for sporting venues, tighter controls over ads, new pricing levels and further regulated access to alcohol. Additionally, they are calling for enhanced safety labels that will be more visible and more effective. Community and legislative action are also a focus of recent editorials for to help improve and preserve public health pertaining to alcohol consumption.

Foundation director David Crosbie said the decision was at odds with one of the government’s stated priorities in the area of preventative health.

"Alcohol abuse is second only to smoking in the number of preventable deaths caused by substance misuse," he said on Monday, adding it cost the economy more than $15 billion each year.

The Henry review had recommended a volumetric tax on all forms of alcohol, saying social costs of alcohol abuse were not effectively targeted by current tax and subsidy arrangements.

Under the present system, cheap wine is taxed at a much lower rate than other forms of alcohol.

The price of a two liter cask of wine (costing $10.99) includes roughly $1.59 of tax while the same volume of alcohol in full strength beer attracts $7.48 in excise, and in spirits the tax is about $16.45.

"The current system is grossly inequitable," Crosbie said.

Taxation was a powerful evidence-based strategy that was able to impact upon the harmful consumption of alcohol. "In over 50 peer reviewed studies around the world, taxation and price increases have been proven to lower consumption rates."

The government ruled out any immediate changes to taxes on alcohol, pointing to a wine glut and industry restructuring that was under way.

Winemakers predictably applauded the decision, saying any increase in taxes on wine would have devastated the industry amid its toughest period in more than two decades.
Chief of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, Stephen Strachan, said taxing wine in the same way as packaged beer would have seen 95 per cent of wine increase in price, sale volumes fall by 34 per cent and about 12,000 jobs lost.

"We don’t deny that alcohol misuse is a problem, but we have to target the causes, not make ordinary Australians pay because we can’t think of any better solutions," he said.

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester, UK, and Western Sydney, Australia, say their findings, published in Drug and Alcohol Review, trash the idea that sports stars act as role models for fans.

"The perceived drinking habits of sports stars and its relationship to the drinking levels of young people has never been examined empirically, despite these sporting heroes often being touted as influential role models for young people," said lead researcher Dr. Kerry O’Brien, a lecturer in Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences.

"Our research shows that young people, both sporting participants and non-sporting participants, don’t appear to be influenced by the drinking habits of high-profile sportspeople as depicted in the mass media."

The research team asked more than 1,000 young sportspeople at elite and amateur level and non-sportspeople to report the perceived drinking behavior of high-profile sports stars compared with their friends, and then report their own drinking behavior using the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test.

The researchers found that both sporting and non-sporting study participants believed that sports stars actually drank significantly less than themselves but that their own friends drank considerably more.

After accounting for other potential factors, sports stars’ drinking was not predictive of young sportspeople’s own drinking, and was actually predictive of lower levels of drinking in non-sportspeople — the more alcohol non-sportspeople perceived sports stars to drink, the less they actually drank themselves.

Young people’s own drinking was instead strongly related to the overestimation of their friends’ drinking and, in sportspeople only, to sport-specific cultural habits, such as drinking with competitors after games.

Dr. O’Brien added: "Sport administrators, like the Football Association, are very quick to condemn and punish individual sport stars for acting as poor role models when they are caught displaying drunken and loutish behavior. But there is much stronger evidence for a relationship between alcohol-industry sponsorship, advertising, and marketing within sports and hazardous drinking among young people than there is for the influence of sports stars drinking.”

He continued: "We are not suggesting that sports stars should not be encouraged to drink responsibly but it’s disingenuous to place the blame on them for setting the bad example. It is time that sport administrators consider their own social responsibilities when weighing up the costs and benefits of using their sports and sport stars to market alcohol on behalf of the alcohol industry."

"There are very few studies that have examined the relationship between seizures and epilepsy among individuals with FASD," noted James Reynolds, a senior scientist with the department of pharmacology and toxicology and the Centre for Neuroscience Studies, at Queens University. Reynolds is one of the study’s authors.

"Many patients with epilepsy have a history of exposure to a prenatal insult, so we reasoned that prenatal exposure to alcohol could be such an epileptogenic insult," added Peter Carlen, a neurologist and senior scientist for the division of fundamental neurobiology at the Toronto Western Hospital, another of the study’s authors.

"Secondly, there is a significant overlap in brain structures that suffer from deficits as a result of chronic prenatal alcohol exposure and those that are associated with seizures, specifically in the brain’s hippocampus. Thirdly, previous studies had failed to examine other complications that occur in mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy, such as the effects of drinking on seizure activity. Finally, previous studies used small sample sizes and failed to clearly define seizures and FASD."

"Recently, scientists have begun investigating whether fetal alcohol exposure increases the risk for developing other behavioral health and neurological problems," added Dan Savage, Regents’ Professor and chair of neurosciences at the University of New Mexico. "Indeed, evidence has begun to suggest that children with FASD are at greater risk for alcoholism, substance abuse or depression later in life. While it is too soon in the relatively young history of this research field to assess whether maternal drinking during pregnancy increases the risk of aging-related neurologic disorders, such as stroke or Parkinson’s disease, several recent large-scale retrospective studies have examined whether fetal alcohol exposure increases the risk of developing epilepsy."

For this study, researchers examined the histories of 425 individuals (254 males, 171 females), between the ages of two and 49 years, from two FASD clinics. Relationships between a confirmed FASD diagnosis and other risk factors — such as exposure to alcohol or other drugs, type of birth, and trauma — were examined for the co-occurrence of epilepsy or a history of seizures.

"This study revealed a much higher prevalence of epilepsy and seizure history in individuals with a diagnosis of FASD," said Stephanie H. Bell, a researcher with the Centre for Neuroscience Studies at Queens University and corresponding author for the study. "In the general population, less than one percent are expected to develop epilepsy; of those with FASD, six percent had epilepsy and 12 percent had one or more seizures in their life. Subjects were more likely to have epilepsy, or a history of seizures, if exposure to alcohol had occurred in the first trimester or throughout the entire pregnancy."

"While this report supports a growing impression that fetal alcohol exposure may predispose the immature brain to the development of epilepsy, the results do not establish a direct cause-effect relationship between FASD and epilepsy," cautioned Savage.

"Establishing a direct link between these clinical conditions will be a difficult challenge given our incomplete understanding of how ethanol damages the developing brain and what neuropathological changes in brain tissue lead to the development of different types of epilepsy."

Nonetheless, Savage added that it is clear that alcohol can damage the fetal brain. "The extent to which this damage leads to adverse neurobehavioral consequences likely depends upon a multitude of factors, including the amount and patterns of drinking during pregnancy, the presence of other pregnancy risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, substance abuse, or poor prenatal care, and the presence of other diseases affecting a mother’s health, such as diabetes or high blood pressure," he said. "As risk factors accumulate, the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes also increases."

"Epilepsy and/or seizures in children are often missed in clinical assessments," noted Carlen, "and if it is untreated it can lead to increased or unrecognized cognitive problems. In the long-term, it can also result in problems in attention and memory and the risk of unattended and dangerous seizures. Many children may not have a predisposition to epilepsy and do not have the physical signs of FASD, but the physician should be aware of alcohol exposure during pregnancy when considering their patient’s health and the etiology of particular diagnoses."

"This report builds on a growing body of evidence that maternal drinking during pregnancy may put a child at greater risk for an even wider variety of neurologic and behavioral health problems than we had appreciated before," said Savage.

"The consensus recommendation of scientists and clinical investigators, along with public health officials around the world, is very clear — a woman should abstain from drinking during pregnancy as part of an overall program of good prenatal care that includes good nutrition, adequate exercise, sufficient rest, and proper prenatal health care."

"Alcohol dependence (AD) is a very complex disorder," said Geoff Joslyn, senior scientist at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and corresponding author for the study. "We know that inherited genes account for about half of a person’s risk of becoming AD but this genetic risk is spread across many genes. To simplify the genetic risk, we took advantage of clinical and epidemiological studies that have shown that a person’s innate response to alcohol is related to their risk of becoming AD. Individuals that have a low response to alcohol, that is people who must drink more than the average person to become drunk, are at a greater risk of becoming AD. We studied this alcohol response because we think it is a sub-component of AD and is much less genetically complex."

"With complex diseases such as alcoholism, diabetes or cancer, which are caused by many genes working together, there has been a great deal of difficulty identifying "a gene" that represents a good target for developing new medical therapies," said Michael F. Miles, a professor in the departments of pharmacology/toxicology and neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The approach described in this manuscript sidesteps the entire issue of the "gene" and focuses on the functional unit of genes, or biological pathways. So, to paraphrase a mantra from another field, "it’s the network, stupid." By focusing on networks rather than single genes, genetic studies such as genome-wide association studies can have increased power for detecting biological factors affecting complex diseases."

Miles added that, while gene networks have been widely used to analyze data related to different diseases, this study combined several different approaches to improve the yield of significant gene networks associated with AD.

Joslyn and his colleagues analyzed data on subjects selected from a larger, long-term study called the San Diego Sibling Pair investigation: 367 (233 females, 134 males) Caucasian participants 18-25 years old with a positive family history of AD, from 186 independent families. All subjects were tested for their LR to alcohol, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to determine if a gene set—genes that participate in a common biological function—demonstrate a greater genetic association than would be randomly found.

"We characterized 367 people whose LR to alcohol had been measured in the laboratory," said Joslyn. "We were looking for variation in genes that correlated with variation in alcohol response. No single gene was correlated well enough with alcohol response to be confident that the observation was not just due to statistical fluctuation.

The results suggest that variation in sets of genes that encode the components that enable neuronal communication contribute to individual differences in alcohol LR. The neuronal signaling pathways identified were the same pathways that had been implicated in alcohol response in experimental animal and tissue culture models. Glutamate neurotransmitter signaling systems were most strongly implicated."

"Identifying neuronal signaling genes, including glutamate receptor signaling, in a genetic study of human variation in responses to alcohol is hugely important because it reinforces the years of work that has pointed to single genes in such systems," said Miles. "However, the GSEA largely focuses on previously defined ontology gene sets or known biological pathways. Alternative approaches, such as using novel gene-gene correlation structures derived from protein-protein interaction or microarray expression correlation datasets, might illuminate results from the genome-wide association studies analysis that fall far away from "under the streetlight." Despite this, the recapitulation of glutamate signaling … will more than likely further encourage the search for pharmacological agents targeting glutamate signaling as therapies in alcoholism or alcohol toxicity."

"The results of this study do not suggest any new mechanisms," noted Joslyn, "but rather add corroborative evidence to established ideas. The study does suggest that natural, inherited variability in glutamate signaling may contribute to variability in alcohol response. We thus hypothesize that it is possible to alter alcohol response through therapies that target altering glutamate signaling. It will take many years of further study to determine the validity of the hypothesis and if such therapies can be useful in treating AD."

"These numbers are high," says Dr. Jurgen Rehm, one of the authors of the study published in this week’s edition of the Lancet. "And they’re only getting higher as more people drink in higher volumes and more frequent patterns."

Amy Minsky of Canwest News Service writes that the researchers attribute the recent global increase in part to greater consumption by women.

"Plus, production is more widespread and marketing has globalized," Rehm said, adding that the effect of alcohol on the human body is better understood and can be more easily linked to causes of death.

"The public doesn’t always recognize an alcohol-related death," he added. "It’s not like if your neighbor dies of lung cancer, and you assume he was a smoker. Nobody ever assumes that their neighbor’s breast cancer was because she was a drinker."

Most diseases that are commonly associated with alcoholism—such as cirrhosis of the liver—constitute a minority of alcohol-related deaths, said Rehm.

Alcohol can influence several hormonal systems in the body, causing various diseases such as mouth and throat, colorectal and breast cancers, as well as strokes.

A woman who has three drinks per day on average increases her risk of getting breast cancer by about 15 percent, said Rehm. "That means that (perhaps) only one in 20 cases of breast cancer is due to alcohol consumption. And that’s why the public ignores alcohol as a carcinogen."

The report noted alcohol consumption also leads to accidental, premature deaths.
"When you have more people drinking more alcohol, you get more people who are risk-prone," said Rehm. "You have more people on our highways, drunk driving, and more people drunk while snowmobiling or boating. Accidents and deaths will happen."

Separate data from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health published in 2006 found 3,892 deaths attributable to alcohol in Canada, or 1.8 percent of all Canadian deaths. The three biggest contributing factors were unintentional injuries, cancers and digestive diseases.

While the Canadian figure is lower than the world percentage, the global numbers are bolstered by areas such as Europe, where one in 10 deaths is directly attributable to alcohol, and Russia, where about one in seven deaths can be directly linked to alcohol.
The study found that globally, alcohol consumption worked out to about 12 units per person per week on average. A unit is comparable to a small can of beer, glass of wine or a one-ounce shot of liquor.

"But globally, the vast majority of adults abstain from liquor," said Rehm. "So the drinkers are actually drinking about twice as much."

The Canadian consumption is calculated at almost nine units per person per week. By contrast, in Europe it is 21.5 units per week.

"The public disregards a lot of what alcohol does to the system," said Rehm.

In a Science Daily report on this study, it was also found that chemically blocking the stress factor also blocked the signs and symptoms of addiction, which suggests that this is a potentially promising area for future drug development.

"I’m excited about this study," said Associate Professor Marisa Roberto, leader of the research. "It represents an important step in understanding how the brain changes when it moves from a normal to an alcohol-dependent state."

Not only does this study confirm that CRF plays a central role in alcohol addiction, it also shows that in rats, the hormone can be blocked one a long-term basis to alleviate the symptoms of alcohol dependence.

The research team also explored the potential of the effects of CRF as they increased the strength of inhibitory synapses in neurons in a manner very similar to alcohol. The change occurs as a result of the increased release of the neurotransmitter GABA, which plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability.

Research was also done to see if the effects of CRF could be blocked through the administration of CRF antagonists. The behavior of the alcohol-dependent rats that received one of the DRF antagonists mimicked their non-addictive counterparts. Instead of seeking large amounts of alcohol, the treated rats and non-addictive rats both self-administered only moderate amounts.

"This critical observation suggests that increased activation of CRF systems mediates the excessive drinking associated with development of dependence," said Roberto. "In other words, blocking CRF with prolonged CRF1 antagonist administration may prevent excessive alcohol consumption under a variety of behavioral and physiological conditions."
 

Burns said he was "shocked" by the number of suspensions, which he described as "totally unacceptable." He added, "The last thing anyone wants to see is schoolchildren staggering drunk in the street.”

"Alcohol abuse and binge drinking, particularly among young people, is an ever increasing problem in our society. It is quite shocking to learn this behaviour is not just restricted to town centers on Friday and Saturday nights, but has now made it into our schools as well,” he said.

"If children are getting so drunk on a regular basis it is affecting their schooling then serious action needs to be taken by both head-teachers and the parents. Harsh discipline needs to be brought to bear both inside and outside the school. The issuing of suspensions in these cases is totally justifiable and that needs to be backed up with further punishment at home," Burns added.

The statistics cover the academic years from 2003-04 to 2007-08 but no details are available on whether the students involved were under the influence of alcohol on their school premises.

Suspension and expulsion figures for the 2008-09 school year will be published in the coming weeks.

The Scottish government said the research strengthened its argument for minimum alcohol pricing. The BBC reports that ministers do not have enough support to get the plan through parliament, with opposition parties saying it could be illegal under European competition law.

The research, which looked at the impact of alcohol misuse across society, put a much higher cost on the problem than the £2.25bn figure previously used by the Scottish government.

Using the report’s mid-point estimate of £3.5bn, it calculated the problem was costing the health service £268.8m and social care £230.5m. Crime-related costs were put at £727.1m, while the impact to the economy stood at £865.7m. And the human cost caused by suffering through premature death was estimated at £1.46bn.

Challenging her opponents, Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "The time for stalling is over and the need for action is clear. This report, which takes a more comprehensive view than any previous study, indicates that the total cost of alcohol misuse to Scotland’s economy and society is even worse than we thought."

Minimum pricing forms part of a range of measures to tackle Scotland’s drink problems, contained in the proposed Alcohol Bill. But rival Holyrood parties have maintained their opposition to the move.

Labour health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said her party had discounted minimum pricing because it was "untested and possibly illegal", adding: "The challenge now is for us to come up with something better."

Deputy Scottish Tory leader Murdo Fraser said his party backed targeted tax rises on known problem drinks, such as super-strength beer and cider.

"We oppose the SNP’s policy of indiscriminate blanket minimum pricing, which is probably illegal, penalises responsible drinkers and will cause immense damage to the Scotch whisky industry," he said.

"The Scottish government would do far better to bring forward measures to tackle irresponsible promotions and selling below cost price,” added the Liberal Democrats’ Robert Brown.

The Associated Press reports that Cambridge Democrat Anthony Galluccio pleaded guilty last month to leaving the scene of an accident that caused minor injuries to a father and his 13-year-old son. As part of his probation, the senator was ordered to abstain from alcohol and to submit to random testing.

Three days after his guilty plea, he tested positive for alcohol during two breath screenings.

Galluccio testified Monday that he had showered and brushed his teeth twice before the testing was done Dec. 21, and insisted he had not ingested any alcohol. He has claimed the positive readings were the result of toothpastes that contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol and artificial sweetener.

But Judge Matthew Nestor, saying Galluccio ”didn’t last a week” without alcohol, found the lawmaker had violated the terms of his probation. Galluccio, looking stunned, was led away in handcuffs as his mother and sister watched from the courtroom. He will serve his sentence at the Middlesex County jail.

Senate President Therese Murray issued a tersely written comment after Galluccio’s sentencing: ”The senator needs to consider what is in the best interest of his constituents and the Senate.” Murray, D-Plymouth, added that senators will meet Wednesday and take action then, if necessary.

If Galluccio fails to resign, the Senate could refer his case to the Senate Ethics Committee. The committee could then recommend one of four measures: censure or public reprimand; suspension; a call for resignation; or expulsion.

Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei said Galluccio is no longer able to carry out the duties of his office effectively and ”should realize it is in the best interests of everyone that he resign.”

Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz said the judge ”found by clear and convincing evidence” that he violated his probation by drinking alcohol.

”He pleaded out on a Friday and this (failed alcohol screening) happened on a Monday. I don’t think that’s helpful from a defense standpoint,” Cruz said. ”Obviously, there’s a real issue here that needs to be addressed.”