In a column published in Liberation, 4 addictologists are alarmed against the Health bill. This text, which unraveled the Evin law, will create the alcoholic patients of tomorrow, according to them.
Alcohol and tobacco in quantity, few vegetables and even less fruit, the lifestyle of the French is not exemplary, according to a recent OECD report (1) on the health of the Organization’s 34 member countries. In 19 countries, smokers represent less than 20% of the population, the OECD average. 8.5 liters of alcohol are also drunk on average, per inhabitant and per year.
And each time, France looks like a bad student. The over 15s consume 11 liters of alcohol annually, and 24% smoke every day. A situation that some addictologists can no longer support who are stepping up to the plate this Monday in a column published in Release.
Evin Law: an empty shell
They are four specialists (2) who have serious concerns for the future. They are protesting in particular against the health bill which will be voted on in the National Assembly on November 17. More precisely, they denounce a text in which “it is again a question of opening up the field of exceptions to the Evin law”, relating to advertising on alcohol: “Access to media which had hitherto been prohibited – such as television and cinema, which are imposed on all – total freedom of content, which could be an incentive for consumption, end of the obligation to affix health warnings, and no more protection for young people: the Evin law would no longer be more so than an empty shell, which would have lost all its framing virtues ”, they deplore.
… for wine, but not only
Today, the Evin law provides for an exemption for any “alcoholic beverage with an identification of quality or origin, that is to say for wine. The authors of the forum fear that this exception will be open to other alcoholic beverages. And the list goes on: “Ultramarine rums, Scotch whiskeys, Russian and Polish vodkas, Mexican tequila, abbey beers, etc.”, they quote.
More advertising, more alcohol consumed
And for those who think that this change in legislation would have no effect, know that various studies have already shown that a simple increase of 1% in advertising spending increases the amount of alcohol consumed by 0.25%, they point out. .
Doctors recall that their mobilization serves “to alert the government, the legislator and the public on this abandonment of young people and the most vulnerable to advertising influence”, and “on this defeat of public health” …
As a reminder, alcohol kills nearly 50,000 people per year in France.
(1) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Catherine Lemorton denounces the alcohol lobby in the Assembly
Asked this Thursday by the LCP National Assembly channel, the deputy Catherine Lemorton is up in the air. The president of the Social Affairs Committee in the Assembly discovered that the composition of her committee had changed within days of a very close vote on the relaxation of the Evin law. Socialist deputies Jean-Jacques Vlody and Sylviane Bulteau have been replaced by Anne-Yvonne Le Dain and Catherine Quéré. Both are signatories of an appeal by 60 parliamentarians from the majority asking Manuel Valls and François Hollande to relax the rules governing alcohol advertising.
By integrating “officially” the commission, the website of the LCP chain explains that they have won the right to vote on a “hotly contested” amendment, defended today by Catherine Lemorton. It intends to cancel the distinction between publication for alcohol and oenological information introduced by the Senate in September.
A winning bet for the alcohol lobby since, at the end of the afternoon, this Monday, the social affairs committee voted to relax the Evin law, allowing advertising for alcohol.
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