"Alcoholism - The Simple Truth" - France

Nov 28 2005

A leading French journalist and a former alcoholic Hervé Chabalier, says the nation is in a state of national denial and needs to do something to reduce the nations' alcohol consumption.

According to Chabalier the country has always, culturally just seen the good side and never faced the fact that alcohol is the third greatest cause of avoidable deaths in France.

Mr Chabalier presented his report, Alcoholism - The Simple Truth, to health minister Xavier Bertrand saying that alcohol was directly responsible for 23,000 deaths a year in France, and indirectly responsible for a further 22,000.

Chabalier says that a third of all custodial sentences in France, half of all domestic violence, a third of all handicaps are due to alcohol.

Along with that, 1 person in 10 is ill as a result of alcohol, and every day 5 French people die in an accident linked to alcohol.

He says 5 million drank too much, and 2 million were dependent on alcohol.

It appears that the healthcare system is incapable of dealing with the problem.

Apparently in greater Paris there are 245 hospital beds in specialist departments for alcohol-related problems, compared with more than 550,000 confirmed alcoholics.

He also recognises the "enormous strength and economic clout" of the alcohol lobby, where MPs leap to the defence of an industry that employs 500,000 people.