The damage caused by the consumption of alcohol in Australia is widespread

Professor Robin Room, from the University of La Trobe's Center for Research on Alcohol Policies (CAPR), explains that we tend to think of consumer-related damage only in its extreme forms. : drunk driving, fetal alcohol syndrome and alcohol related violence.

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There is no safe dose, it is a carcinogen, it changes your behavior and it affects the people around us … there are social impacts.

Professor Simone Pettigrew, Curtin University.

By talking only about the extremes, it was easier to separate, "the rest of us, the social drinkers," from "them," he says.

"These extreme situations exist in a social setting … that's why you hear all the talk, claiming that the alcohol industry is very interested in responsible drinking, that it There is a kind of easy separation between responsible and non-responsible consumption. when it's actually a continuum, "Room says.

"It's really only in the last ten years that people have started thinking about this on a larger scale and defining it more broadly as harm caused by the use of alcohol by other people. . "

Framed in this way, the secondary impact of alcohol becomes much more prevalent.

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In addition to harassment or insults, the 8,750 participants in the survey experienced other forms of harm, including feeling threatened or frightened; have clothes or ruined goods; have vandalized a house, car or other property; to be pushed, beaten or assaulted; be physically injured be in a traffic accident; being a passenger in a vehicle with a drunk driver; have family problems or marital difficulties; and have financial problems.

Although the design of previous Australian research has been slightly different, making direct comparison difficult, Room says that "reported rates in Australia are higher than in the United States."

"They are certainly not lower," he adds. "The United States drinks less than Australia on average. About a third of adults do not drink at all in the United States. In Australia, it is less than 20%. "

However, there are commonalities between countries. According to a study released earlier this year, women are more likely than men to report the harm caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages by a spouse / partner or a family member, while men are more likely to report damage caused by the alcohol consumption of a stranger.

Damage also tends to be higher among young adults because of the higher number of teens who drink "to get drunk," explains Room, as well as those who drink more themselves.

We tend to think that alcohol consumption is harmful for the drinker … More than for tobacco and illicit drugs, a lot of the damage is done to others. "

"Although there are a lot of people, especially in couples who find themselves with great difficulty without them drinking or drinking very little," Room adds. "And women support a lot, especially in relationships."

An Australian study dating back to 2018 found that women living with a high alcoholic spouse have higher levels of anxiety symptoms and depression and lower life satisfaction.

Professor Simone Pettigrew of the Curtin University School of Psychology and a member of the Alcohol Advertising Supervisory Board Steering Committee adds that the cost of alcohol-related harm in Australia is estimated at around $ 36 billion a year.

"It's one of those inconvenient truths," says Pettigrew about the impact of second-hand alcohol.

"Eighty percent of Australian adults drink alcohol, which means that the population is not interested [in hearing about it] … and a quarter of Australians consume at least once a month.

According to Pettigrew, policy makers generally aim to target "very specific groups," such as pregnant women and youth, but the rest of Australia must also consider this.

"There is no safe dose, it is a carcinogen, it changes your behavior and it affects the people around us … there are social impacts."

The room is in agreement. "Basically, we tend to think that drinking is bad for the drinker," he says. "More than, apparently for other drugs, certainly more than for tobacco and more than for illicit drugs, a lot of damage is done to others, not just to the drinker."