Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-345"
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"en.20070904.28.2-345"2
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"Mr President, overall I welcome this report. I think it finds the right balance between recognising established cultural habits and the very worrying trend of harmful consumption of alcohol, particularly the growth in the hazardous binge-drinking culture among our young people.
The Commission in its approach identified key targets – protecting our children, combating binge-drinking, reducing injuries and deaths from alcohol rage, road accidents and the whole area of suicide. My colleagues have pointed out the areas of concern extremely well. I would now like to emphasise myself the need to add the serious risks of pre-natal alcohol exposure as a key target in the Commission’s list to be worked on, and for the health and alcohol forum proposed by the Commission particularly to take up this issue. This is because the area of the pre-natal damage done by the consumption of alcohol is one very poorly understood by the public at large.
No amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy, because alcohol is a teratogen. In fact it is more dangerous during the second and third trimesters, which is what most pregnant women do not understand, because it is usually the first trimester that is the area of concern in terms of taking medication or drugs or any such substances. Alcohol is particularly dangerous in the second and third trimesters. Without shaming and blaming, we need to get an educational information campaign out through the Member States, through the GPs, to alert pregnant women immediately to the dangers of alcohol in this area. Colleagues have mentioned ADHD. There is also Asperger’s Syndrome. The medical research community has had difficulty in getting published in this area, owing to the politics of alcohol. Let your forum take over this issue and go further with it.
A final word on alcohol abuse as part of polydrug abuse. In Ireland a fifth of those treated for problem alcohol use also misuse drugs, and a recent study in France found that driving under the influence of cannabis doubles the risk of being responsible for an accident. The increasing prevalence of polydrug use needs to be addressed urgently by your forum too, and by each Member State, and the necessary technical supports to detect polydrug use, particularly at roadside police checks, need to be enhanced, with technical support being given to our police authorities."@en1
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