lobbies stronger than our health

“Don’t let alcohol knock you out.” : these are the words we should have seen on our screens during the Rugby World Cup. A clear campaign on the dangers of alcohol. It will never see the light of day, any more than another series of posters, with a similar message, which should have been distributed this summer. These two operations had, however, been specifically ordered by the Ministry of Health, before being suddenly rejected by the then Minister of Health, François Braun.

His successor, Aurélien Rousseau, is apparently on the same line: he in turn has just canceled the broadcast of a prevention campaign, intended for the entire population.

The argument officially given by the Ministry of Health is that they have decided to target their prevention actions more specifically on populations at risk, and in particular to “prioritize the young target”. Either. We can hear it. We can also doubt it. Radio France journalists revealed the existence of a letter, sent in January 2023 by stakeholders in the wine industry to Emmanuel Macron. They are vigorously protesting against a previous prevention campaign, deemed “demonizing”. This is proof that there is pressure from the alcohol lobby, exerted at the highest level of the State.

The arguments of the lobbies taken up by the government

It’s time to make my own contribution. I would like to cite the report published in May 2021 by Inserm, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, concerning the damage linked to alcohol consumption. A document written by a college of experts, based on the state of the scientific literature and, above all, established at the request of the Ministry of Health. This official report takes the time to analyze the arguments used by the alcohol lobby: “The players in the sector [ont tendance à] downplay the harms of the product by mentioning that they affect a minority of the population and that moderate consumption of this product provides health benefits. Consequently, the measures proposed by these lobbying actors are based on targeted interventions on at-risk groups, particularly young people, while they are hostile to measures that affect the entire population.”

These are, word for word, the elements of language used by the government to respond to Radio France journalists!

The report is however very clear: recent studies have shown that all alcohol consumption is harmful to health, even just one drink per day. Inserm researchers therefore recommend, among other things, “make communication clearer to the general public on the risks associated with alcohol consumption”. This is exactly what the communication campaigns that were rebutted were supposed to do.

This is not the first time that we have observed this type of influence. At the end of 2019, Public Health France committed to organizing a “Dry January”, a month of January without alcohol, the effectiveness of which research has also demonstrated. And, here too, this project was disconnected at the last moment following a government decision.

Emmanuel Macron’s governments reluctant to deploy real prevention campaigns

To explain it, there are already obvious economic issues: the wine industry claims, in France, nearly 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. Furthermore, it is difficult not to see it, too, as a question of communication. Emmanuel Macron has communicated on numerous occasions about his love for wine. A way of reflecting the image of a man rooted in French lands and traditions, someone who has been widely criticized for being the president of city centers.

The only problem is that at the same time, alcohol is responsible for 49,000 deaths each year in our country. Its social impact is estimated at 118 billion euros per year, 6% of GDP, for tax revenues of only four billion euros – 30 times less! We obviously need a real alcohol-related risk prevention policy. Unfortunately, it seems that, for the time being, the lobbies were stronger than our health.