Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-343"
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"en.20070904.28.2-343"2
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"Mr President, tonight’s debate on an EU strategy to support Member States in reducing alcohol-related harm should be wholeheartedly welcomed. It carries on the work that I conducted in my report in 2001 on young people and alcohol and its negative effects. The globalisation of the alcoholic drinks market and the increase in binge drinking across the EU is a phenomenon that politicians and health bodies alike are trying to grapple with.
In order to share best practice and to see how other countries are coping with similar problems, cooperation at EU level is essential. For starters, one accident in four can be linked to alcohol consumption, with 10 000 people killed in alcohol-related road accidents in the EU each year; 35% to 45% of traffic accident deaths are of young people aged 18 to 24. Drink-driving accidents are even more revealing: two thirds of the people involved were between 15 and 34 years old and 96% were male.
Alcohol is estimated to be the causal factor in 16% of cases of child abuse and neglect. Take the subject of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): prenatal alcohol abuse is the commonest acquired cause of mental retardation. More recently, medical professionals have stated there is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
In 2001, at the time of my report on young people and alcohol, FAS was relatively unknown. Six years later there would appear to be more than acceptance of the argument that, if the same alcoholic beverage in the USA has an FAS health warning, why cannot the exact same product in the EU have the same warning? There is no difference between the two products: just that one is sold in the US and the other is not.
As Ms Sinnott said, the rates of women drinking whilst pregnant are 20% in the USA, where FAS labelling has been used, whereas in Ireland they are 80%, in the UK 75% and in the EU as a whole 40%. FAS warnings on alcohol products would be easy to introduce and their impact, combined with public health education and information, would be important in preventing FAS in the EU."@en1
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