New Research Guidelines Reduce Recommended Drinks Per Week

Researchers from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) called for reductions in safe drinking guidelines and mandatory warning labels to disclose the link between alcohol consumption and cancer on August 29. The new CCSA guidelines are one of many efforts to connect consumers with the reality of alcohol being a major carcinogen, along with tobacco and asbestos. The new reduced guidelines call for zero to two drinks per week to be safe. This is a significant reduction from 10 drinks a week for women and 15 for men. For Yukoners, who statistically understandably drink much more than that, the guideline calls for an even more dramatic reduction. In a 2015 Yukon State of Health report by Dr. Brendan Hanley, former chief medical officer, the average Yukoner was found to consume 3.8 drinks per occasion. The top proportion of drinkers was found to consume 10.4 drinks per occasion. His report also says Yukoners suffer more harms – cancers, violence, accidents, incarceration, homicides, suicides, aggression, family problems and other injuries – than other Canadians. The Yukon has a drinking culture, he said. “So alcohol is forgotten, because we are all used to alcohol and alcohol is very normal. Yes, but it’s still killing us in different ways,” Hanley said. In 2017, the Yukon government backed out of an experimental program to put warning labels on liquor bottles after just one month, given threats of litigation from liquor producers. A CCSA report from 2019 says Yukon’s reluctance sparked international media coverage. The 2015 Hanley report is the last comprehensive report on substance use-related health in the territory. Southern Canadians are surveyed every two years as part of the Canadian Standard Alcohol and Drug Survey, but it excludes the three northern regions. Only in 1990 and 2005 was this research conducted in the Yukon. Yukon’s sales figures per person over 15 have long exceeded the Canadian average. The latest figures from Statistics Canada for 2020/2021 show that alcohol consumption in the Yukon increased, even without tourists. “Finally, we have proof,” said Dr. Brendan Hanley, former chief medical officer of health and Yukon MP, joking about the decades-old political logic of using tourists to eliminate Yukon’s high consumption rates as he spoke with the News Aug. 23. One way statisticians track alcohol consumption is by tracking per capita sales by volume of pure alcohol per year. The Canadian measure is 8.3 liters. Yukon is 13.3. All jurisdictions saw a small increase during the pandemic, with British Columbia and Alberta increasing to 9 litres. Yukon still tops the international measure. “If you’re number one, you’re number one,” said Dr. Tim Niami, director of the Canadian Center for Research on Substance Use and Addiction, on Aug. 29. He said that consumption per capita is a good, methodologically sound measure and correlates with everything else. “We pretty much know that it would be mathematically impossible not to have a high level of per capita consumption that reflects the high rate of alcohol consumption.” Hanley says the Yukon data set is on shaky ground. He can’t understand what the trend of tobacco use is like, has no sense of prescription drug use in the area, and believes the opioid problem has overtaken the alcohol situation. “I would be surprised if things have changed much in terms of alcohol consumption since 2015,” he said. Hanley believes we should take a 20-year window on the problem. He said his hopes have been raised by the new Yukon Liquor Act. His team developed recommendations to introduce a greater public health perspective into regulations in areas such as pricing, off-sale hours, labeling and other policy initiatives. Yukon’s new law was passed in 2019, but has not yet been announced, pending new regulations. Yukon Liquor Corporation spokeswoman Amelie Quirke-Tomlins wrote in an email, “the regulations will be finalized as soon as possible.” Niami, who recently came to CCSA from Boston University, sees the problem through years of rigorous study. “I’m a researcher and basically youth drinking follows that of adults to a large extent,” he said. “So if you really want to tackle youth drinking, you have to tackle adult drinking first.” He believes programs to reduce drinking among young people are being wasted by not paying attention to the drinking of the adults around them. “This is a whole fantasy world that we can just have some educational program for young people. And meanwhile, all the adults drink a ton. And then we’ll pretend this is really about youth drinking. Because it won’t.” The new consumption guidelines aren’t expected to be official in Canada until November after a public consultation period. Contact Lawrie Crawford at [email protected]

title: “New Research Guidelines Reduce Recommended Drinks Per Week Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-01” author: “Lisa Christie”

Researchers from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) called for reductions in safe drinking guidelines and mandatory warning labels to disclose the link between alcohol consumption and cancer on August 29. The new CCSA guidelines are one of many efforts to connect consumers with the reality of alcohol being a major carcinogen, along with tobacco and asbestos. The new reduced guidelines call for zero to two drinks per week to be safe. This is a significant reduction from 10 drinks a week for women and 15 for men. For Yukoners, who statistically understandably drink much more than that, the guideline calls for an even more dramatic reduction. In a 2015 Yukon State of Health report by Dr. Brendan Hanley, former chief medical officer, the average Yukoner was found to consume 3.8 drinks per occasion. The top proportion of drinkers was found to consume 10.4 drinks per occasion. His report also says Yukoners suffer more harms – cancers, violence, accidents, incarceration, homicides, suicides, aggression, family problems and other injuries – than other Canadians. The Yukon has a drinking culture, he said. “So alcohol is forgotten, because we are all used to alcohol and alcohol is very normal. Yes, but it’s still killing us in different ways,” Hanley said. In 2017, the Yukon government backed out of an experimental program to put warning labels on liquor bottles after just one month, given threats of litigation from liquor producers. A CCSA report from 2019 says Yukon’s reluctance sparked international media coverage. The 2015 Hanley report is the last comprehensive report on substance use-related health in the territory. Southern Canadians are surveyed every two years as part of the Canadian Standard Alcohol and Drug Survey, but it excludes the three northern regions. Only in 1990 and 2005 was this research conducted in the Yukon. Yukon’s sales figures per person over 15 have long exceeded the Canadian average. The latest figures from Statistics Canada for 2020/2021 show that alcohol consumption in the Yukon increased, even without tourists. “Finally, we have proof,” said Dr. Brendan Hanley, former chief medical officer of health and Yukon MP, joking about the decades-old political logic of using tourists to eliminate Yukon’s high consumption rates as he spoke with the News Aug. 23. One way statisticians track alcohol consumption is by tracking per capita sales by volume of pure alcohol per year. The Canadian measure is 8.3 liters. Yukon is 13.3. All jurisdictions saw a small increase during the pandemic, with British Columbia and Alberta increasing to 9 litres. Yukon still tops the international measure. “If you’re number one, you’re number one,” said Dr. Tim Niami, director of the Canadian Center for Research on Substance Use and Addiction, on Aug. 29. He said that consumption per capita is a good, methodologically sound measure and correlates with everything else. “We pretty much know that it would be mathematically impossible not to have a high level of per capita consumption that reflects the high rate of alcohol consumption.” Hanley says the Yukon data set is on shaky ground. He can’t understand what the trend of tobacco use is like, has no sense of prescription drug use in the area, and believes the opioid problem has overtaken the alcohol situation. “I would be surprised if things have changed much in terms of alcohol consumption since 2015,” he said. Hanley believes we should take a 20-year window on the problem. He said his hopes have been raised by the new Yukon Liquor Act. His team developed recommendations to introduce a greater public health perspective into regulations in areas such as pricing, off-sale hours, labeling and other policy initiatives. Yukon’s new law was passed in 2019, but has not yet been announced, pending new regulations. Yukon Liquor Corporation spokeswoman Amelie Quirke-Tomlins wrote in an email, “the regulations will be finalized as soon as possible.” Niami, who recently came to CCSA from Boston University, sees the problem through years of rigorous study. “I’m a researcher and basically youth drinking follows that of adults to a large extent,” he said. “So if you really want to tackle youth drinking, you have to tackle adult drinking first.” He believes programs to reduce drinking among young people are being wasted by not paying attention to the drinking of the adults around them. “This is a whole fantasy world that we can just have some educational program for young people. And meanwhile, all the adults drink a ton. And then we’ll pretend this is really about youth drinking. Because it won’t.” The new consumption guidelines aren’t expected to be official in Canada until November after a public consultation period. Contact Lawrie Crawford at [email protected]