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This wk, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a program in partnership with the executive branch of the European Union, planning to spend &euro;10 mil (just over $10 mil) "to increase awareness among the public and policy-makers of the links between alcohol consumption and cancer risks." It follows the mid-Nov announcement of a $15-mil program called RESET Alcohol, designed to drive WHO-backed alcohol policies and research in 15 countries, mostly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Both funds will work to build the "capacity" (i.e. people, govt and nonprofit infrastructure) to support public health policies that typically focus on reducing alcohol-related harm by reducing consumption. EVID-ACTION Aims to Add Cancer Warnings to Alc Bevs in Europe "Even small amounts of alcohol can negatively affect people's health," WHO asserts early in press release announcing the Evidence into Action Alcohol Project, or EVID-ACTION, in collaboration with the EU. That's reference to link between even low-moderate consumption and certain types of cancer, especially breast cancer among women. Tho light consumption only slightly increases risk, WHO and the EU are hanging over $10 mil on that particular hook.EVID-ACTION has 3 specific aims, led by efforts to add "health warning labels for alcoholic beverages." The word "cancer" doesn't appear in that bullet-point, but shows up 3 times earlier in the release; key goal is to get tobacco-like cancer warnings on every alc bev package. Other aims: "capacity-building, health literacy, public knowledge and advocacy" and "alcohol screening and brief interventions." While industry is generally supportive of education and medical screenings, the message matters.For instance, consider comment by WHO's regional director for Europe: "Alcohol is a Group-1 cancer-causing substance, in the same category as arsenic, asbestos and tobacco." That isn't a message the industry is eager to see blared across the continent and beyond. But EU already on board for a program "set to address" a lack of public awareness "by improving labeling and health literacy," director Dr Hans Henri P Kluge continued.Bloomberg-Supported Org Leads Effort "Doubling" Global Alcohol Control Funding RESET Alcohol is led by Vital Strategies, a public health-focused organization that works regularly with WHO, holds events and talks at the UN and spent years working hard on tobacco policy. This new project is funded by Givewell, which was started to help folks direct donations to the most effective charities and is now a major charity in its own right, garnering hundreds of millions in annual donations. Vital Strategies has long been supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.The $15-mil project "is a welcome infusion of resources into a neglected public health crisis, roughly doubling existing global funding on alcohol control," Vital Strategies wrote last month. Alongside WHO, Vital brings together some other usual suspects: Movendi Intl, the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance and the NCD (non-communicable disease) Alliance. The Univ of Illinois Chicago's Institute for Health Research Policy is also a partner in RESET thru its Tobacconomics team. That highlights the other major takeaway here: people and funding once focused on tobacco continue to shift toward alcohol.RESET aims to "provide financial support to governments, civil society and research groups to build and strengthen staffing capacity, communication, stakeholder engagement, policy-relevant research, data systems and advocacy campaigns to implement and strengthen alcohol policy," it sez. It also has a clear anti-industry bent. "We need policies that protect kids, make healthy choices the easy choices and check industry's influence," sr veep of Vital Strategies' public health programs, Adam Karpati, explained.US Watchouts, Parallels and Contradictions Neither of these programs target the US. But the focus markets for the funding cover large swaths of the rest of the globe. And even if some of the so-called "SAFER" policies the WHO supports are a much tougher sell here, 2 top action items are likely to come into play in pending debates. As the TTB revisits federal alc bev labeling rules, public health voices are prepared to press for cancer warnings, just like the WHO-EU project endorses. And just as "RESET's primary policy focus is increasing alcohol taxation and other pricing policies," as Vital Strategies notes, similar efforts pop up perennially in the states, where pandemic-related increases in harm drive current advocacy.Look too toward Vital Strategies' work outside alcohol for both clues to its thinking and at least one contradiction. The org links "vaping," "responsible drinking" and "natural" food labeling in a publication titled "Consumers Beware: Harmful Industries Deploy Language to Mislead Buyers." They're all terms "designed to make harmful products sound tamer or to shift responsibility for risks onto consumers," the org writes. And they allow industry "to effectively avoid regulation and to promote products that undermine our health and drive or worsen inequities," it argues. There's that tobacco link, again. But it loops in the broader food and drinks biz, too. Consider that in relation to parallel US policy debates about "healthy" food labeling as well as the increased cross-category activity between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks suppliers and wholesalers.The org's drug policy advocacy looks quite different, however. Vital Strategies works in US states to support "harm reduction strategies such as access to supplies for safer drug use, naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder, and reduction of drug-related incarcerations." These policies &mdash; which create mechanisms to provide opioids and other drugs to people facing addiction in scenarios designed to be safer and keep them from overdosing before getting them into recovery programs &mdash; are controversial. The thinking behind them feels contradictory to an approach on alcohol designed to restrict access. But perhaps this model, too, points to a preferred public health vision of the future where alcohol and tobacco supply are as restricted as other drugs, consumption is as demonized and funding focuses solely on preventing harm among a much smaller population.

Pair of WHO-Backed Projects to Spend $25+ Mil on Alcohol Policies Across Globe

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