23.01.2025 - Let us be fiscally responsible in public operations – savings recommendations from a broad coalition of health professionals, prevention organizations, and others in the consultation portal on January 21, 2025.
On August 26 of this year, the aforementioned health professional associations, prevention organizations, and others raised concerns with authorities regarding the current public health threat due to the significant increase in online alcohol sales. In their statement, they noted:
"The approved parliamentary policy on public health until 2030 states that Icelanders should be among the leading nations in public health efforts based on the best scientific knowledge and experience, and that public health should guide all planning and policy-making. The laws on alcohol and tobacco trade stipulate that the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company (ÁTVR) should operate, with the aim of defining a framework for alcohol retail and tobacco wholesale that promotes improved public health and social responsibility, limits and controls access to alcohol and tobacco, thereby reducing the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco use, and protects young people from alcohol and tobacco consumption while restricting the availability of undesirable products."
The associations urge authorities not to deviate from the approved public health policy until 2030 and the objectives of the current laws on ÁTVR's private alcohol sales.
The aforementioned parties wish to emphasize that the societal cost of alcohol consumption is significant. This cost includes expenses related to health and social services, law enforcement and the legal system, property and personal injury, and reduced societal productivity due to deaths and lost workdays. These costs and other impacts fall on consumers, their families, and society as a whole. Facts about the effects of alcohol consumption can be found on the World Health Organization (WHO) website: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol.
Attention is also drawn to a letter from the WHO to Icelandic health authorities on July 18, 2023, which states that the European Action Plan on Alcohol 2022-2025, unanimously approved by all 53 member states in 2022, encourages member states to prioritize measures to control alcohol supply, including considering state-operated alcohol outlets.
As the WHO has emphasized, the alcohol industry has significant financial interests in selling alcohol for profit. The alcohol industry employs the same tactics as the tobacco industry to prevent or delay government regulation and undermine good public policy. In a new WHO document (November 2024), Empowering Public Health Advocates to Navigate Alcohol Policy Challenges - Alcohol Policy Playbook, the claims used by the alcohol industry in its advocacy and the counterarguments from public health professionals and organizations are summarized.
The foreword (p. VI) states:"The alcohol industry perpetuates misinformation that has had harmful effects on public knowledge and awareness. Fewer than one in three Europeans know that alcohol consumption increases the risk of cancer, and only 20% of women have the necessary information to make informed choices about alcohol consumption. The commercial interests of industries like alcohol and tobacco persistently clash with public health objectives, but we must rise above these challenges. As highlighted in the recent WHO/EURO report on the commercial determinants of noncommunicable diseases, industries employ sophisticated tactics to shape public perception, influence media narratives, and even capture political processes. This underscores the urgency of equipping policymakers, health authorities, and advocates with the tools they need to expose and dismantle these harmful narratives."
The same report notes in section 1.3.1 (p. 13) that the estimated societal cost of alcohol consumption, when all factors are considered, amounts to approximately 2.6% of gross domestic product (GDP).
"There is a substantial and growing body of literature estimating the economic costs to society that are caused by alcohol use. For example, a 2021 PROSPERO-registered systematic review and analysis identified 29 studies focused on the estimation of alcohol’s social cost. An analysis aggregating these identified studies from 29 primarily high-income countries showed that, if all harms caused by alcohol were included, the social cost of alcohol use expressed as a percentage of national gross domestic product (GDP) was 2.6%."
Iceland's GDP in 2023 was 4,321 billion ISK. Therefore, it can be estimated that the societal cost of alcohol consumption in Iceland in 2023 was approximately 112 billion ISK, based on WHO data. The precise calculated amount is 112,346,000,000 ISK.
According to a December 2018 report, transferring alcohol sales from Systembolaget, the state-owned alcohol retailer in Sweden, to private entities would significantly increase alcohol consumption. If sales were transferred to privately owned specialty stores, alcohol consumption could increase by 20.00% per individual. If sales were moved into grocery stores, consumption could increase by 31.2% per individual. The alcohol sales framework has been very similar between Systembolaget in Sweden and ÁTVR in Iceland, so a comparable increase in consumption could be expected here if private entities took over alcohol sales in Iceland.
All research shows that alcohol consumption has negative effects on public health and incurs significant societal costs. It also shows that any increase in alcohol sales, including due to increased access to alcohol, leads to a corresponding increase in alcohol-related harm and societal costs.
Therefore, significant savings can be achieved by adhering to the approved public health policy until 2030 and the objectives of the current laws on ÁTVR's private alcohol sales.
These savings amount to billions of ISK annually.
Submitted by:
Félag íslenskra hjúkrunarfræðinga – Icelandic Nurses' Association
Félag lýðheilsufræðinga – Icelandic Public Health Association
Ljósmæðrafélag Íslands – Icelandic Midwives Association
Læknafélag Íslands – Icelandic Medical Association
Sálfræðingafélag Íslands – Icelandic Psychological Association
Sjúkraliðafélag Íslands – Icelandic Paramedics Association
Félagsráðgjafafélag Íslands – Icelandic Social Workers Association
Lyfjafræðingafélag Íslands – Icelandic Pharmacists Association
Iðjuþjálfafélag Íslands – Icelandic Occupational Therapists Association
Þroskaþjálfafélag Íslands – Icelandic Physiotherapists Association
Félag áfengis- og vímuefnaráðgjafa – Association of Alcohol and Drug Counselors
SÁÁ – Icelandic Temperance Association
Fræðsla og forvarnir - félag áhugafólks um forvarnir og heilsueflingu – Education and Prevention – Association of Individuals Interested in Prevention and Health Promotion
Foreldrasamtök gegn áfengisauglýsingum – Parents' Alliance Against Alcohol Advertising
IOGT á Íslandi – IOGT in Iceland (International Organization of Good Templars)
SAFF - Samstarf félagasamtaka í forvörnum – SAFF – Collaboration of Prevention Organizations
Source: RÚV