Jönköping, 07/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - “Binge drinking”, or the excessive consumption of alcohol by the young in order to get drunk, and the harm this does to their health is a common problem that calls for appropriate solutions, said Maria Larsson, Sweden's Deputy Health Minister, on Tuesday 7 July on the second day of the informal meeting of EU health ministers in Jönköping.
On the basis of the conclusions of the last report within the framework of the ESPAD project on drinking and drug habits among young people of 15 and 16 years of age in 35 countries of Europe, the minister noted that young people in eastern and southern Europe consume large amounts of alcohol. According to the report's terminology, this means five glasses of beer or wine during an evening. Maria Larsson also drew attention to another conclusion reached in the report, namely the “displacement of alcohol marketing and advertising to the new media”, especially YouTube and Facebook. This new method of communication, which targets the young especially, “has increased dramatically”, the minister said. Although European regulation on alcohol advertising stipulates that it should not be aimed at children, the boundary between what is licit and what is illegal is not always easy to identify. Ministers had to confront this situation in a certain activity with a group of teenagers, where they looked at several advertising films on alcohol before commenting on their legality as laid down by the alcohol producers' own regulatory bodies. European Health Ministers finally agreed on the need to take more European and national level measures to protect young people from too aggressive marketing. Maria Larsson concluded that, “We should ensure that preventive measures against alcohol abuse continues to be a priority on our agenda”. (S.B./transl./tfl)