Alcohol consumption kills more than 3 million yearly, WHO
JOBURG - More than 3 million people died from excessive alcohol consumption in 2012.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) launched its 2014 global status report on alcohol and health in Geneva on 12 May and reported that more than three million people die globally due to high consumption of alcohol.
WHO revealed that South Africa rated four on a scale of one to five of the prevalence of risky patterns of drinking and had the highest levels of harmful alcohol consumption in Africa followed by Gabon and Namibia. South Africa had more than double the incidence of alcohol abuse compared to its neighbours, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
The report states that 10.4 percent of the South African population had heavy episodic drinking in 2010, however men consume alcohol more often than women. Males consumed 32.8 litres of alcohol each year on average, while women only drank 16.0 litres on average.“Females are often lifetime abstainers than males,” WHO reported.
What do South Africans consume? On average 40 percent beer, 18 percent wine and 17 percent each spirits and other beverages.
Dr Sizwe Phakathi, deputy head of chamber of mines explains that often people drink to avoid their problems.
“People engage in risky and dangerous behaviour to avoid their frustrations, lack of social amenities in communities also causes people to indulge in alcohol, because they tend to be bored with nothing to do,” Nkululeko Khumalo, a University of Johannesburg student agreed.
“Sometimes I drink to avoid certain things in my life, when I am really stressed I buy beer and de-stress.”
WHO said, “In the Republic of South Africa the estimates made of the combined tangible and intangible costs of harmful use of alcohol to the economy reached nearly R300-billion or 10 – 12 percent.”
South Africa has implemented measures to protect people from harmful drinking. Those include the excise tax on alcohol, raising the age of legal drinking, introducing a policy of zero tolerance for drinking and driving and introducing education campaigns against alcohol- related harm in schools.
WHO suggested that more countries should take action on alcohol abuse, and that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the damage alcohol abuse causes on people’s health.
