Alcohol, may not be far behind tobacco in terms of public health impact if a recent publication by The Lancetand a WHO report are to be believed. There are about 2 billion people worldwide who consume alcohol and 76.3 million suffer from nearly 60 types of alcohol related diseases and injury. The death toll is alarming too with 1.8 million deaths. 

It is high time to apply the lessons that we learnt from tobacco control and make a comprehensive alcohol control law for the nation. Akin to tobacco laws in 80s, alcohol has great social acceptability because of several decades of shrewd marketing. Both continue as profit making industry despite plethora of evidence against them.

Though alcohol is claimed to exert some beneficial effects (cardiovascular, cholelethiasis and diabetes), the recent WHO report concluded that ‘there are more life years lost due to alcohol consumption than deaths prevented’.  The WHO report offers an evidence based summary of the health and social consequences of alcohol use and patterns worldwide. Alcohol is causally related to cancers of the mouth, oropharynx, liver, esophagus and breast. It causes dependence syndrome, cirrhosis, pancreatitis (acute and chronic), gastritis, polyneuropathy, hemorrhagic stroke, psychoses, epileptic seizures and other mental conditions.

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