Addiction (1998) 93(3), 447 ± 450

News and Notes

COMPILED BY SARAH WELCH

European Comm ission calls for a uni ® ed

alcohol lim it for drivers

European Union countries currently have vary-

ing limits for legally acceptable blood alcohol for

drivers, with the lowest limit in Sweden and

highest in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland,

Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK, with

intermediate levels in the other European Union

countries. The European Transport Commis-

sioner, Neil Kinnock, has called on the eight

countries with the high limits to reduce their

limits to 50ml alcohol per litre of blood (the

levels currently used by Belgium, France, Fin-

land, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal).

Neil Kinnock also marked 30 years of

breathalysing in the United Kingdom by paying

tribute to Baroness Castle who ® rst introduced

legislation on acceptable alcohol limits for driv-

ers in 1967.

ª Wetº and ª dryº villages in Alaska

December’ s Journal of the American M edical As-

sociation contains an editorial on alcohol prob-

lems and public health policy, in which the

author argues that the diversity of alcohol poli-

cies across different states in the USA does not

always serve public health objectives well, as

individuals may travel to avoid areas with

speci® c restrictions; but paradoxically this same

diversity provides opportunities for researchers

to compare different policies (Gordis, 1997).

Within the same issue are two interesting papers

from Alaska, an area which has long had high

rates of alcohol misuse and related problems.

Both focus on relatively isolated communities.

One paper (Chiu et al.) found that the prohib-

ition of alcohol over a 33-month period in Bar-

row, Alaska, resulted in a substantial decrease in

the number of alcohol-related outpatient visits:

visits increased when the ban was lifted and

decreased again when it was re-imposed. The

other study (Landen et al.) used death certi® cate

data and medical examiner records to compare

mortality rates for total injury and alcohol-

related injury during 1990 ± 1993 in a sample of

remote Alaskan villages, some of which prohib-

ited the sale and importation of alcohol. Resi-

dence in a village without prohibition was

associated with higher risk of alcohol-related in-

jury death, with the strongest associations with

motor vehicle injury, homicide and hypothermia.

The authors introduce caution by reminding us

that these ® ndings cannot be generalized to less

isolated communities, where residents may in-

crease their risk of alcohol-related injuries by

travelling from their residences to obtain alcohol.

CH IU, A.Y., PEREZ , P.E. & PARKER , R.N. (1997 ) Im-pact of banning alcohol on outpatient visits in Bar-row, Alaska, Journal of the American Medical

Association, 278, 1775 ± 1777 .GORDIS, E. (1997) Alcohol problems and public health

policy (Editorial), Journal of the American Medical

Association, 278, 1781 ± 1782 .LANDEN , M.G., BELLER , M., FUNK , E. et al. (1997)

Alcohol-related injury death and alcohol availabilityin remote Alaska, Journal of the American Medical

Association, 278, 1755 ± 1758 .

Cost-effectiveness of practice guidelines for

smoking cessation

JAMA also contains a study of the cost-effective-

ness of the clinical practice recommendations of

the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

regarding smoking cessation. The authors found

the preventive interventions to be highly cost-ef-

fective, and the more intensive the intervention,

the lower the cost per measured bene® t. Inter-

ventions involving intensive counselling and the

nicotine patch as adjuvant therapy were regarded

as a good investment for society.

CROM WELL, J., BARTO SCH, W.J., FIORE, M.C. et al.(1997 ) Cost-effectiveness of the Clinical Practice

0965 ± 2140/98/030447 ± 04 $9.50 Ó Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs

Carfax Publishing Limited

448 News and Notes

Recommendations in the AHCPR Guideline forSmoking Cessation, Journal of the American Medica l

Association, 278, 1759 ± 1766.

Employees win settlem ents on passive

smoking

Thanks to the British Medical Journal News sec-

tion for drawing my attention to a landmark trial

in the USA in which 60 000 ¯ ight attendants

® led a class action suit against major tobacco

companies for smoking-related illnesses from

having to work in high concentrations of en-

vironmental smoke. The ® rms have agreed to

fund a research institute for the study of to-

bacco-related illnesses, while individual workers

retain the right to seek damages. This might lead

to legal action from other employees who have to

work in smoky surroundings. Meanwhile, in

Manchester, UK, a non-smoking secretary took

on the ® rm of solicitors for whom she had

worked, claiming that she had been unfairly dis-

missed because she had continued to protest

about the ® rm’ s smoking policy. She won her

case, adding weight to the move to increase

employers’ responsibility for ensuring employees

health and safety with respect to passive smok-

ing.

Did you know ¼ .

Some interesting snips from last November’ s

issue of The Globe M agazine on international

alcohol and drug problems:

· The production of coca leaf has more than

doubled and that of opium poppy more than

tripled since 1985.

· Wine sales in France have slumped, causing

serious concern to the industry. One third of

French citizens never drink wine, and the or-

ganization Familles de France has expressed

concern that young people are drinking too

much cola and not enough wine.

· Over the 27 years that wine consumption has

been falling in France, wine consumption in

the UK has quadrupled.

· Alcoholic lemonade manufacturer Two Dogs

Holdings is planning an expansion into Asian

markets.

· Australian Swan brewery have widened the

opening on their beer cans by 40% ª to reduce

the `glug’ sensationº (nothing to do with

speeding up consumption, of course).

· An Australian rugby league player has been

acquitted of two charges of assault (on his wife

and two young women who were strangers to

him) on the grounds that he was too drunk to

be responsible for his actions. This dangerous

precedent is now under review.

The UK Governm ent Drugs Prevention Ini-

tiative: Annual Progress Report

I have received a brightly coloured brochure

from the Communication Directorate of the

Home Of® ce of the UK Government. This pub-

lication bubbles with optimism and nice photo-

graphs of young people, as well as a lot of

sentences beginning with And, But and So. I

found it rather over-con® dent about our (very

limited) current knowledge about how to prevent

drug misuse by young people, but it’ s good to

see plans for some interventions with inbuilt

evaluation. The iguana, as you will see below,

has written to me with a rather dim view of

things on the tobacco front. She has spotted

some inconsistency here ¼ .

The Iguana Column

Our iguana has rattled into the of® ce with yet

another of her spiky contributions which we now

print below. Iggy asks us to say that she will

always be glad to hear from the journal’ s readers

regarding instances of hilarious public behaviour

in the addictions ® eld.

Public Health at the UK pit-stop

Here are the main facts of my latest story. Before

the 1997 General Election representatives of the

UK Labour Party were heard to say that if the

electorate would kindly put them in of® ce they

would give early attention to the banning of all

tobacco advertising. We thought we heard them

also say ª and tobacco sponsorshipº . Come the

outcome of the election in May 1997 and a

massive Labour majority, the good fellows

seemed set rapidly to ful® l their promise and

they were immediately talking about plans to ban

both advertising and sponsorship totally and in

quick measure. But then came a surprising

change of heart. Formula One motor racing

would be exempted from the proposed action,

although everyone knows that the sport is

characterized by massive television coverage of

News and Notes 449

noisome cars buzzing repetitively around a track

with these machines plastered with the logos and

colours of a product which kills millions.

Funny story you might think. Why, if you are

going to ban tobacco sponsorship, blow a hole in

your policy by exempting a type of promotion

which is highly ef® cacious in undermining public

health effects? I mean, cigarettes associated with

daring, glamour, big phallic machines skidding

round corners. chequered ¯ ags and silly men

squirting each other with champagne while ador-

ing women look on; what better for hooking

young people on a deathly habit?

Let me just add one other item to this story

before you tell me that your Iguana must have

got her facts wrong and that no government

seriously committed to supporting the Public

Health could ever be expected to behave in such

a crass and inconsistent way. Shortly before the

election date Labour received a £1 million party

political donation from Formula One interests.

And later the Prime Minister personally received

at Downing Street a delegation representing

those interests.

Readers of Addiction will be unsurprised to

know that the Minister of Public Health has not

yet resigned. No, on the contrary, the Prime

Minister has given a positive, categorical, eyes

staring at the camera assurance, that the £1m

present had nothing whatsoever to do with the

decision to leave Formula One sponsorship un-

banned. Further, he has let it be known that he

is quite cross with people who would make a

connection between the two events and he’ s

feeling pretty disenchanted with the public for

not trusting him. It’ s our fault, he says, we are

being beastly unfair, and then he gives us a little

more insouciant staring at the camera. The late

news is that Britain has now signed up to a

European Agreement on sponsorship and adver-

tising, but Formula One will go on with tobacco

sponsorship until 2006. Which country would

you expect to have pressed for this ill-judged

delay in a necessary health measure?

You’ ve heard about Repetitive Strain Injury,

so what about Repetitive Strained Credulity In-

jury? Your Iguana is thinking of serving a writ on

HM Government for bringing on a bad case of

RSCI.

Conferences and events

American Society of Addiction M edicine : Forensic

Issues. The ASAM are running training courses

in three different cities, aimed at training Medi-

cal Review Of® cers. This includes a certi® cation

exam. The course is designed as continuing

medical education for physicians and other

health care professionals, and includes infor-

mation on drug testing and US Federal require-

ments; understanding addiction and relapse;

® tness for duty; and discussion of management

of actual cases. The courses are held in Atlanta,

GA (20± 22 February); San Diego, CA (17± 19

July); and Toronto, Ontario, Canada (13± 15

November 1998). In addition, the ASAM is

running a one-day meeting entitled Forensic Is-

sues in Addiction Medicine, on February 19 in

Atlanta, GA. For information on any of these

courses, contact the: American Society of Addic-

tion Medicine, 4601 North Park Avenue, Suite

#101, Arcade Chevy Chase, M D 20815, USA.

Tel: 1 1 301 656 3920. Fax: 1 1 301 656 3815.

E-mail: asamof® ce@aol.com http//www.asam.org

24th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of

the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiolog-

ical Research on Alcohol, Florence, Italy, 1± 5 June

1998. The Symposium will consist of submitted

papers, prepared discussion sessions and topical

workshops. Contact: Centro Alcologico Integrato-

KBS 98 Symposium Secretariat, Azienda Sanitaria

di Firenze, Policlinico di Carregi-S. Luca, V.Le

M orgagni 85 Ð 50134 Firenze, Italy.

College on Problems of Drug Dependence Sixtieth

Annual Scienti ® c Meeting, Scottsdale, Arizona,

13± 18 June 1998. This meeting offers a broad

range of symposia, workshops, oral presentations

and posters. The proceedings will be published

as a NIDA research monograph. Information on

submission of abstracts to: Dr Martin W . Adler,

Executive Of® cer, CPDD, Department of Pharma-

cology, Temple University School of M edicine , 3420

N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA.

CPDD Satellite Meeting : Building International Re-

search in Drug Abuse: Global Focus on Youth,

Scottsdale, Arizona, 12± 13 June 1998. For infor-

mation, contact: M . Patricia Needle , Acting Di-

rector, International Program, NIDA. Tel: 1 1 301

594 1928. Fax: 1 1 301 402 5687. E-mail:

pn28h@nih.gov

Association of Nurses in Substance Abuse 14th

National Conference, Florence Boot Hall, Univer-

sity of Nottingham, UK 15± 17 April 1998. This

conference aims to bring together nurses from all

® elds and allied professional who have an

450 News and Notes

interest in substance misuse; to highlight the area

of substance misuse in nursing, and the role of

nurses; to provide a setting for communication

of research, and to discuss the impact of legisla-

tive changes concerning substance misuse. For

information contact:: Professional Brie® ngs, 120

Wilton Road, London SW1V 1JZ, UK.

Addictions: Challenges and Changes, Brisbane,

Australia, 6± 9 July 1998. This Winter School in

the Sun is organized by the Alcohol and Drug

FoundationÐ Queensland. This ª schoolº aims

to provide professional development for both

specialist and mainstream workers in the ® eld of

substance misuse. All enquiries to: W inter School

in the Sun Secretariat, Alcohol and Drug Foun-

dation Ð Queensland, PO Box 332, Spring Hill, Qld

4004, Australia. Tel: 1 61 7 3832 3798. Fax:

1 61 7 3832 2527. E-mail:dinie@ats.com.au