[Music] every year harmful use of alcohol is responsible for three million deaths and five percent of the global health burden from road traffic injuries to violence abuse and neglect to diseases like liver cirrhosis heart disease cancers and tuberculosis to mental health issues like alcohol dependence depression and suicides but what can we do about it well the who's global strategy endorsed by member states aims to reduce the harmful use of alcohol unfortunately implementation of the strategy is uneven meet nina in her country there are very few government regulations on drinking nina is out with a friend
the alcohol is cheaper than bottled water and the bar stays open till 4am so people are encouraged to stay out late and drink more nina's friend falls and hurts herself now meet amir her government has introduced pricing measures on alcohol and there's a mandatory closing time for bars which means amy and her friend leave for home at midnight amy decides to take a taxi because the police in her country are very active in enforcing drink driving countermeasures but in nina's country the police don't enforce drink driving walls at all so she decides to drive her
friend home she is way over the limit and crashes her car nina and her friend are taken to hospital using up the time and resources of busy nurses and doctors nina's injuries aren't serious and once they're patched up she is released immediately but when she gets home she is told that her friend died in the car crash in amir's country if people display signs of problems with drinking alcohol they are offered help early amy's country also has restrictions on alcohol advertising unlike nina's where young people can be persuaded to drink to excess by cleverly targeted
commercials if governments implement the who's safer initiative they can change people's relationship with alcohol making our world less like nina's and more like amy's be safer strengthening restrictions on alcohol availability advancing and enforcing drink driving countermeasures facilitating access to screening brief interventions and treatment and forcing restrictions on alcohol advertising raising prices on alcohol through taxes and pricing policies safer is a who-led initiative that follows the global strategy to make our world safer from alcohol-related harm [Music] you
