Awareness campaign on alcohol: "No level of consumption is protective for health"

If "rather moderate consumption" of alcohol "have a small protective effect" for "certain pathologies", the head of the unit addiction to Public Health France, invited by Nikos Aliagas on Europe 1, would like to enlighten the French on "little known" risks they take by consuming alcohol.

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"Enable the French to make informed choices for their health." This is the goal of the new awareness campaign on alcohol, which the Ministry of Health launches Tuesday, through his agency Public Health France. On this occasion, Viet Nguyen Thanh, head of the addiction unit at Public Health France, was invited by Nikos Aliagas on Europe 1.

"Moderate drinks have a small protective effect" on "certain pathologies". This campaign, which recommends not drinking more than two drinks a day, "and not every day", aims to offer the French "thresholds below which the risks are moderate" for their health, explains-t- she.

It recognizes however that for "certain pathologies", like myocardial infarction, "rather moderate consumptions have a small protective effect". "But these pathologies are so rare, not in the absolute, but relative to all other pathologies, all other health problems on which alcohol has a deleterious effect, that at the global level no level of consumption of alcohol is protective for health, "she warns.

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"There are pleasures that are associated with alcohol consumption that one can not deny." This threshold of two glasses per day has been "identified" thanks to "epidemiological scientific work" consisting of "simulating consumption levels and then simulating the associated mortality risk", but also in order to "be acceptable to the French population "It's important in a country like France not to be on a message that would be a message of total abstinence." "There are pleasures that are associated with alcohol consumption that one can not deny."

The other goal of this new awareness campaign is also to warn the public about certain risks related to alcohol consumption that it could ignore. "The risks that are put forward in this campaign are very little known," says Viet Nguyen Thanh. To summarize, this campaign must allow the French to "make informed choices and knowing the risks they take for their health".