China, India boost global booze binge

PARIS: The world consumed ten percent more alcohol per adult in 2017 than in 1990, due in large part to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers said Wednesday.On current trends, global consumption per capita will rise another 17 percent over the next decade, they reported in The Lancet. By 2030 half of all adults worldwide will drink alcohol, and almost a quarter will binge drink at least once a month, according to projections covering 189 countries."The world is not on track to achieve global targets to reduce harmful alcohol use," the authors said, calling for more aggressive counter-measures such as higher taxes and a ban on advertising.The World Health Organization (WHO) goal is to reduce "harmful alcohol use" 10 percent by 2025. Alcohol is linked to over 200 diseases and accounts for more than three million deaths -- 75 percent of them men -- each year, the WHO has said.Globally, some 237 million men and 46 million women suffer from alcohol-related disorders, with the highest rates in Europe (15 and 3.5 percent, respectively, for men and women) and North America (11.5 and 5 percent)."Before 1990, most alcohol was consumed in high-income countries, with the highest use levels recorded in Europe," said lead author Jakob Manthey, a researcher at the Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy in Dresden, Germany."However, this pattern has changed substantially, with large reductions across Eastern Europe and vast increases in several middle-income countries such as China, India, and Vietnam." While the broad trend lines are clear, they have yet to intersect. In 2017 a higher percentage of adults 15 and older in Europe and North America still consumed alcohol -- and more of it -- than in other parts of the world. In France, for example, men drank the equivalent of 19 litres of pure alcohol, and women just under six, for a combined average of just over 12 litres. Only 14 percent of men never drank, and 29 percent of women.

from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2VdG3WY