Sobering statistics on alcohol abuse spark a city campaign

As people in Galway look forward to the usual barrage of Summer festivals, one group is putting plans in place to try and reduce the harmful use of alcohol in the city.

According to statistics from the UK, published in 2011, alcohol is responsible for around 4% of cancers. The International Agency for Research into Cancer (IARC) has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest risk category, for the past 25 years.

“There’s no safe limit of alcohol to drink, it’s just like you can’t say that if you only smoke three cigarettes a day, you’ll be fine,” says Mike O’Loughlin, spokesman for The Galway Healthy Cities Alcohol Forum

He and his colleagues are looking to change the way we look at alcohol and to highlight the range of health and social problems that alcohol consumption can lead to.

Not content with just raising awareness, the group want to implement real strategies to reduce the instances of alcohol-related harm in Galway.

Mr O’Loughlin revealed that they have spoken with a number of groups from around Galway City to see if the problem of alcohol-related harm was a recurring theme. “We held open talks with other organisations to gauge whether this was an issue, and the answer we kept getting was that it was,” he said.

Their work has resulted in The Galway City Strategy to Prevent and Reduce Alcohol Related Harm. In this, they set out a five-year plan which they hope can really influence the way people think about alcohol.

The strategy is focused at everyone in society, not just those in vulnerable situations. “People were quite happy to think of a strategy for everybody else, for young people or for street-drinkers but they weren’t thinking about themselves,” said Mr O’Loughlin.

 Mr O’Loughlin believes that one of the major causes of alcohol-related harm is its availability. “At the minute, we’re conducting a survey on the density of alcohol selling outlets in the city. We’ve found that there are 248 places to buy alcohol in Galway City. Nearly every shop now has a wine licence and that’s not helping the situation.” He was keen to stress that those in the Galway Healthy Cities group were not out to stop people from enjoying themselves.  “None of us on the Forum are anti-alcohol, we’re not looking for an abstinence or prohibition situation. We want to keep Galway as a cool party-town but without the casualties,” he said.

More information on the strategy is available at: http://www.galwayalcoholstrategy.ie/

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.