Alcohol is causing the death of more than 26 lakh people every year. Around 40 crore people around the world are suffering from diseases caused by alcohol and drugs. This is 4.7 percent of the total deaths in the world. That is, alcohol is responsible for one in every 20 deaths. This information has come out in the ‘Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health and Treatment of Substance Use Disorder’ of the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the report, if we include deaths due to drugs, then this number is more than 30 lakhs. The situation is worse in India. Here, 38.5% of deaths are due to alcohol in every one lakh deaths. This number is more than double that of China. In China, the number of deaths due to alcohol in every one lakh deaths is 16.1%.
Excessive consumption of alcohol leads to many problems. These include liver diseases to cancer. The report also confirmed that out of the 26 lakh deaths caused by alcohol in 2019, 16 lakh deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as cancer (4,01,000 deaths and 4,74,000 deaths were due to heart diseases).
- Apart from these, accidents were the cause of 7,24,000 deaths and infectious diseases were the cause of 3 lakh deaths.
Young people between 20 and 39 years are more affected
The biggest victims of alcohol and drugs are the youth between 20 and 39 years of age. 13 percent of the victims of alcohol were people of this age group. The health organization has also confirmed that the highest number of deaths were recorded in Europe and African regions in 2019. The number of deaths due to alcohol per lakh people in Europe was 52.9 and in Africa it was 52.2.
- Excluding Europe, poor countries have the highest alcohol-related mortality rates, while high-income countries have the lowest rates.
31.2% of people aged 15 years and above are addicted to alcohol
In India, 31.2% of people aged 15 years and above consume alcohol. Out of these, 3.8% are those who are badly addicted to it and drink alcohol in large quantities every day, while 12.3% are those who drink a lot of alcohol occasionally. In India, about 41% of men aged 15 years and above drink alcohol, while the number among women is 20.8%.
Restrictions on advertising are necessary
In view of these health concerns, the World Health Organization has emphasized in its new report on reducing alcohol and drug consumption and providing treatment for disorders arising from these drug abuse. The top health agency says that many countries have imposed some restrictions on alcohol marketing but they are very weak. Most countries in the world have no rules for the Internet or social media.
