One for the road: A global concern

This work is a result of a collective commitment made by Chief Executive Officers of major international beverage alcohol producers to make a significant effort in the 2010-2012 time frame to address the harmful drinking through a combination of global and local actions with an emphasis on low and middle income countries such as Nigeria […]

This work is a result of a collective commitment made by Chief Executive Officers of major international beverage alcohol producers to make a significant effort in the 2010-2012 time frame to address the harmful drinking through a combination of global and local actions with an emphasis on low and middle income countries such as Nigeria where they are presently working in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps in partnership with road safety NGOs. These leading producers of beer, wine and spirits are taking on new commitment that build on their long standing effort to reduce harmful drinking. The companies are implementing 10 targeted actions in five key areas over the next five years. The five key areas are; reducing under aged drinking, strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice, providing consumer information and responsible product innovation, reducing drinking and driving and enlisting the support of retailers to reduce harmful drinking
Globally, there are about 1.3 million road traffic deaths yearly and millions of injuries. Although estimate of crashes caused by drink driving vary from country to country, one point is clear; it is a leading contributor. I have chosen to discuss these initiatives in view of the plans by the Corps to up its game in the area of the use of breathalysers to check the incidence of drunk driving. My focus however will be on their efforts in reducing under aged drinking and drinking and driving in the face of the increasing incidence of drink driving which is pronounced during festivities and weekends in major cities across the country.
With respect to reducing under aged drinking, the International Centre for Alcohol Policies expressed concern over the extent and harmful consequences of underage drinking as expressed by governments from all over the world, including the concern by the WHO. In most countries, there is minimum age for purchase and or consumption of alcohol, yet drinking by those under the minimum age of 18 is a concern in many parts of the world and can lead to serious public health consequences. Underage drinking is a societal challenge that is only possible to prevent through expanded cooperation among governments, enforcement agencies, clerics, retailers, parents, educators and others in the community. Their focus is therefore to encourage national government to set ambitious but realistic and measurable targets to significantly reduce underage purchase and under age consumption of alcohol beverage by 2018. In doing so, they committed themselves to actively seek enforcement of government regulations for under-age purchase and consumption in all countries where we are commercially active and where a minimum purchase and/or consumption age has been set. In countries where no such limits exist, we will either alone or with others who share this objective encourage government to introduce a minimum purchase age and to enforce it. In addition, they commit to strengthen work other interested stakeholders, including NGOs and IGOs commit to; to develop promote and disseminate educational materials and programmes designed to prevent and reduce underage purchase and consumption which either address young people themselves or those known to have strong influence over their behaviour. This, according to them will include consulting experts on the development of best practice educational materials for use by parents, schools and community groups and in social media.
In the area of reducing drinking and driving, the group recalled the UN Decade of Actions on Road Safety (2011-2020) which emphasizes in its Pillar4, the need for improving road safety behaviour of road users including reducing drink driving. The plan specifically invites government, international agencies, civil society organisations and the private sector to use the plan as guiding document for their activities. It is in this context that the group acknowledged the preventable contribution that drink driving makes to road traffic crashes and fatalities which has more impact among the youth as illustrated in the WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety 2009. While acknowledging their role in helping to prevent both drink-drive morbidity and mortality, they encourage government to enforce existing drink drive laws and regulations advocating for the introduction of effective drink drive laws, including a BAC limit for novice drivers, backed by appropriate enforcement, stressing their history of engagement with pilots in countries such as Nigeria, Mexico, China, Russia, Columbia and Vietnam
I am excited by these developments but saddened by the slow pace of our legislations. As I write I am not aware of a national legislation restricting the purchase and consumption of alcohol by under aged in keeping with best practices. Even where they exist there is hardly any concrete attempt to enforce. The exceptions are the new Lagos State traffic Regulations which takes special exception to driving under the influence but I doubt if it recognises the need to restrict purchase and consumption   I am however elated by the 2012 National Road Traffic Regulations which has aptly prescribed the alcohol limit permitted to be; 0.5grammes in 100millilitres of alcohol or 80milligrams in 100millilitres of urine or best test. The same regulations prescribes fee of N5000 or six months imprisonment or to both. For me the efforts of the Corps in 2014 may not yield significant results if the States don’t copy the examples of Lagos State by barring sale in motor parks.