{"id":2325498,"date":"2024-08-16T05:39:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T09:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/public-health-officials-target-big-booze-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-08-16T05:45:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T09:45:21","slug":"public-health-officials-target-big-booze-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/public-health-officials-target-big-booze-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Public health officials target Big Booze &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpublic-health-officials-target-big-booze-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2325498&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A recent study published in \u200d*JAMA Network \u2064Open* highlights\u200c the \u2063<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californians-receiving-unemployment-must-start-looking-for-work-next-month-to-remain-eligible\/\" title=\"Californians Receiving Unemployment Must Start Looking For Work Next Month To Remain Eligible\">potential health risks<\/a> associated with \u200dalcohol consumption, particularly among older adults. Researchers analyzed data from a cohort of over 135,000 older\u200c drinkers and found\u2064 that even low-risk drinking \u200dcorrelated with increased mortality among those with health-related or socioeconomic vulnerabilities.\u2062 While some\u2064 past studies have suggested that light drinking might have health benefits, this new research\u200b challenges that notion, indicating no safe level of alcohol \u2063consumption. The World Health Organization also supports this viewpoint, stating that \u2063there is no amount of alcohol that is risk-free regarding health effects.<\/p>\n<p>Public health officials are advocating for government actions, including increased\u2062 taxation on alcoholic beverages, to reduce\u200d consumption. The global alcohol industry is immense, \u200dprojected to reach $1.7 trillion in\u2062 revenue by \u20622024, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-chinese-concentration-camp-survivor-on-nba-they-dont-want-to-think-about-humanity\/\" title=\"Exclusive \u2013 Chinese Concentration Camp Survivor on NBA: &#039;They Don&#039;t Want to Think About Humanity&#039;\">significant financial interests<\/a> at stake. Historically, alcohol taxes have been \u2062a crucial \u2063revenue source for governments.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2062debate continues over the effects of moderate \u200cdrinking, with some\u2063 experts arguing that the\u200c belief in potential health \u2062benefits is widely overstated. Critics assert that any alcohol consumption could \u200cpose\u2062 health risks, reinforcing the\u2063 need for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/covid-public-health-freak-john-barry-has-not-learned-his-lesson\/\" title=\"John Barry, the Covid public health enthusiast, remains steadfast in his approach\">public \u200chealth strategies<\/a> to address\u200b alcohol&#8217;s impact on community health.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Business<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Public health officials target Big Booze<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1295648\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>A study of drinking in the United Kingdom by researchers in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/3031532\/spains-anti-israel-virtue-signaling-backfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Spain<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/boston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Boston<\/a> is being used by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-lost-all-credibility-on-social-distancing-after-biden-celebrations\/\" title=\"Dems Lost All Credibility On Social Distancing After Biden Celebrations\">public health officials<\/a> to call for action by governments, from taxation to advocacy to enforcement, that would lead to less <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/alcohol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>alcohol<\/a> consumption.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This cohort study in 135,103 older drinkers found that even low-risk drinking was associated with higher mortality among older adults with health-related or socioeconomic risk factors,&rdquo; the authors wrote in the paper&rsquo;s key findings.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers did concede, however, that &ldquo;wine preference and drinking only with meals were associated with attenuating the excess mortality associated with alcohol consumption.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The paper appeared in <em>JAMA Network Open<\/em>, a publication of the American Medical Association, on Aug. 12. In interviews, the paper&rsquo;s lead author went further than the paper&rsquo;s at times tentative findings dared to.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We did not find evidence of a beneficial association between low drinking and mortality,&rdquo; Dr. Rosario Ortol&aacute;, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at Universidad Aut&oacute;noma de Madrid, told the<em> New York Times<\/em>. However, the researchers did see cancer risks rise &ldquo;from the first drop.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The paper tried to explain vexing results such as the &ldquo;apparently lower mortality of light drinkers compared with abstainers&rdquo; by theorizing that self-described abstainers may &ldquo;include former drinkers who quit alcohol due to poor health, as well as lifetime abstainers, who often have worse lifestyle and health characteristics than regular drinkers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>JAMA<\/em> paper came on top of last year&rsquo;s declaration by the World Health Organization that &ldquo;when it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The WHO also published a report on global alcohol taxes last year. It argued that &ldquo;excise taxes on alcoholic beverages are underutilized&rdquo; and urged countries to &ldquo;increas[e] taxes more systematically so that alcoholic beverage products become less affordable and as a consequence effectively reduce alcohol-related harms.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How big is Big Booze?<\/h2>\n<p>In focusing on all alcohol, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-to-show-lockdowns-are-killing-more-people-than-the-virus\/\" title=\"How To Show Lockdowns Are Killing More People Than The Virus\">public health experts<\/a> are aiming at a massive target. The global alcohol industry is so large and varied that it can be hard to quantify.<\/p>\n<p>The three main parts of the alcohol industry are grouped under beer, wine, and spirits. There are also other significant beverage markets such as mead and weird crossover drinks like hard seltzers.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol is a market with projected revenues of $1.7 trillion globally in 2024, according to Statista data, with significant long-term growth on the horizon. By 2028, it is expected to gross north of $2 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>American beer, wine, and spirits sales were about $156 billion, $107 billion, and $38 billion last year, respectively, according to data from Mintel, BMO, and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. That comes to a back-of-the-envelope total of about $301 billion.<\/p>\n<p>As for volume, in 2023, the U.S. beer industry shipped about 6 billion gallons of beer. Those of legal drinking age purchased about &ldquo;24 gallons of beer, malt-based beverages, and cider per person,&rdquo; the National Beer Wholesalers Association reported.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol taxation has been a major source of revenue for the U.S. government almost since its founding. The first American alcohol tax predates the Bill of Rights. President George Washington put down a small rebellion over whiskey taxation in Pennsylvania in 1794.<\/p>\n<p>Flash forward to 2022. The federal government collected over $11.3 billion in federal excise taxes that year, according to the IRS, and that was before the federal taxman took additional cuts of personal and business income.<\/p>\n<p>The states often take a significant cut on top of that. &ldquo;Like the federal government, most states apply the stiffest tax rates, and more restrictive regulations, to distilled spirits,&rdquo; Adam Hoffer, the Tax Foundation&rsquo;s director of excise tax policy, found in a report last year. Washington state&rsquo;s tax is the highest at $36.55 per gallon. Only New Hampshire and Wyoming declined to level a special tax on spirits.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, alcohol is already a heavily taxed cash cow in most locales. Efforts to curb its consumption by public health experts could directly affect the bottom lines of state governments that have to balance their budgets.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Case not closed on moderate drinking<\/h2>\n<p>It&rsquo;s also possible that public health officials are wrong about the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is a pervasive myth that low or moderate alcohol consumption improves health outcomes,&rdquo; David Cutler,&nbsp;family medicine doctor at Providence Saint John&rsquo;s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told Healthline.<\/p>\n<p>He added, &ldquo;Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is that populationwide studies demonstrate that any alcohol consumption can have a negative health impact. So, it is difficult to argue with the general conclusion that alcohol consumption may be dangerous to your health.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, points out that &ldquo;myth&rdquo; is based on hundreds of studies, most of which found some positive effects of moderate drinking, including healthier hearts.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, in a recent commentary on Substack that Snowdon pointed the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> at, he charged a meta-study claiming to overthrow that body of evidence with an &ldquo;extraordinary amount of cherry-picking.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The authors of that study, published in the <em>Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs<\/em>, &ldquo;started with 3,248 relevant studies of which 3,125 were immediately discarded. This left 123 cohort studies to which they added 87 relatively recent cohort studies. They then discarded 103 of these because they didn&rsquo;t meet &hellip; increasingly stringent and somewhat arbitrary criteria. This left 107 studies, but there was still work to do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Additional filters reduced the &ldquo;quality&rdquo; studies down to 21, then 18, then 15, but those &ldquo;still show[ed] lower risk for moderate drinkers.&rdquo; Further filtering reduced the studies to six, which finally shed &ldquo;the apparent benefits of moderate drinking.&rdquo; Filtering out one more study finally proved that &ldquo;moderate drinkers are now at greater risk than teetotallers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1295648\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1295648\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>**Magazine &#8211; Business**<\/p>\n<p>Public health officials are focusing on the alcohol industry, often referred to as &#8220;Big Booze,&#8221; following a study conducted in the United Kingdom by researchers from Spain and Boston. This research is prompting calls for government action, including taxation, advocacy, and enforcement measures aimed at reducing alcohol consumption. The study involved 135,103 older drinkers and revealed that even low-risk drinking was linked to increased mortality among older adults with health or socioeconomic vulnerabilities. The authors noted that preferences for wine and consuming alcohol only during meals appeared to mitigate some of the excess mortality associated with drinking.<\/p>\n<p>The findings were published in JAMA Network Open on August 12. In interviews, lead author Dr. Rosario Ortol\u00e1 from Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Madrid emphasized that their research did not support any beneficial link between low alcohol consumption and reduced mortality rates; rather, they observed rising cancer risks starting from even minimal alcohol intake. They speculated that self-identified abstainers might include former drinkers who stopped due to health issues or lifelong abstainers who generally have poorer lifestyle choices compared to regular drinkers.<\/p>\n<p>This paper adds weight to last year&#8217;s World Health Organization (WHO) statement declaring there is no safe level of alcohol consumption without health impacts. The WHO also released a report advocating for increased global excise taxes on alcoholic beverages as a means of making them less affordable and thereby reducing related harms.<\/p>\n<p>The global alcohol market is vast and complex, encompassing beer, wine, spirits, mead, hard seltzers among other products. It is projected to generate $1.7 trillion in revenue worldwide by 2024 with expectations of surpassing $2 trillion by 2028. In the U.S., sales figures for beer reached approximately $156 billion last year while wine sales were around $107 billion and spirits about $38 billion\u2014totaling roughly $301 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol taxation has historically been a significant revenue source for the U.S government since its inception; President George Washington famously quelled a whiskey tax rebellion in Pennsylvania back in 1794. In recent years (2022), federal excise taxes collected exceeded $11.3 billion according to IRS data before additional income taxes were applied at both federal and state levels.<\/p>\n<p>Most states impose high tax rates on distilled spirits; Washington state has the highest rate at over $36 per gallon while New Hampshire and Wyoming do not impose special taxes on spirits at all\u2014indicating that alcoholic beverages are already heavily taxed across many regions.<\/p>\n<p>Despite public health experts&#8217; concerns regarding moderate drinking&#8217;s effects on health outcomes being widely accepted as harmful overall by population studies\u2014some experts argue against this narrative suggesting it may be based more on myth than fact. David Cutler from Providence Saint John\u2019s Health Center stated there\u2019s no evidence supporting improved outcomes through low or moderate drinking while Christopher Snowdon from the Institute of Economic Affairs highlighted numerous studies indicating potential benefits associated with moderate consumption such as heart health improvements.<\/p>\n<p>In response to recent meta-studies challenging these claims about moderate drinking benefits\u2014which filtered down thousands of studies into just a handful\u2014the debate continues over whether moderate drinkers truly face greater risks than non-drinkers after extensive scrutiny showed conflicting results regarding their relative safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":2325499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Liquor_Sales_Biz_88.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38311,38312,38313,32068,32076],"class_list":["post-2325498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alcohol-regulation","tag-big-booze","tag-health-policy","tag-public-health","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Liquor_Sales_Biz_88.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}