APN emerged out of 2 EC sponsored
Europe wide research Projects Bridging the Gap and Building Capacity.
The network has currently some 100 members working in the field of
alcohol policy making in governmental offices or in non-governmental
agencies throughout Europe.
There was a number of very high quality
presentations on current dominant themes such as local community
action, pricing and young people with keynotes presented by Sven
Adreasson, Ann Hope and Evelyn Gillan.
“Communities can be stimulated to
develop alcohol prevention – but most health promotion programs in
use have little impact on harm,” said Sven Andreasson, professor of
the National Institute of Public Health in Stockholm. “Policies
that reduce the availability of alcohol on the other hand are
effective but require active advocacy efforts.”
There were also updates and a
discussion on recent developments concerning alcohol policy in the EC
and in WHO by Giuliano Gallo and Lars Moeller as well as a review of
the actual situation in Poland. An exciting open debate took place on
the future of European alcohol policy making. A special interest
session on local alcohol policy making concluded the day.
The meeting took place at a time which
is critical for alcohol policy making at European level: the EU
strategy is coming to an end soon and WHO’s new alcohol action plan
is at its very beginning after the Member States agreed at their
meeting a couple of weeks ago in Baku.
With this meeting APN proved again to
be an extremely valuable resource for anyone with an interest in
public health oriented alcohol policy making serving as a European
platform for exchange, delivering top presentations and providing an
opportunity for high quality debate. APN also announced its
membership of the NCD Alliance.
Membership of APN is free of charge;
the only admission criteria are a proven genuine interest in
developing public health oriented alcohol policies and no interest or
association with the alcohol industry in its widest sense. Fur
further information and membership application:
www.alcoholpolicynetwork.eu
1 comment:
There should be a strict policy and law in alcohol retailing as they are the ones who are responsible in selling alcohol to people, from minors to adults. This is also a good way yo prevent incidents of alcohol-related crimes, accidents, and underage access as well.
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