Ministry of Health wants to ban hourly alcohol sales

77% of Vietnamese men drink alcohol. To limit this, the Ministry of Health is considering including a regulation prohibiting the sale of alcohol after 10pm or midnight in the law on preventing the harmful effects of alcohol.

The Ministry of Health is drafting a law to prevent the harmful effects of alcohol, in which experts are considering banning the sale of alcohol after 10pm or midnight. Many countries have implemented this ban and have shown clear results.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Quang, Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Health, said that according to international research, drinking alcohol between 8-12pm has a huge impact on human health, affecting the nervous system, digestion, and respiratory system while this is the time when people need to rest to restore their labor. In fact, the rate of traffic accidents at this time is very high.

It is expected that by 2018, the Ministry of Health will be able to submit a draft law on preventing the harmful effects of alcohol to the National Assembly for consideration.

Many Vietnamese men have the habit of stopping by beer bars after work. Illustration photo: PD

Speaking at a workshop on the draft law on preventing the harmful effects of alcohol held in Hanoi on September 26-27, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that Vietnam ranks 2nd in Southeast Asia in alcohol consumption (after Thailand), 10th in Asia, and 29th in the world. The economy is developing, living conditions are improving but cannot be as fast as the rate of increase in the number of people using alcohol.

According to the latest survey by the Ministry of Health, more than 77% of Vietnamese men drink alcohol and nearly half drink at a harmful level. In Vietnam, alcohol is always one of the 10 causes of death. An alarming fact is that the age of people drinking alcohol is getting younger. People over 50 years old drink every day, young people use less frequently but the total amount used is more than the elderly.

"If there are no drastic measures to control it, Vietnam could be the world's leader in alcohol consumption, not the 29th as it is now," Deputy Minister Long emphasized.

Dr. Tran Quoc Bao, Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health said that the rate of adults drinking alcohol in Vietnam ranks 22nd in the world, higher than all Asian countries and after European countries in the tropical region. Nearly 50% of Vietnamese men drink at a harmful level, the highest rate compared to other countries in the world. No Asian country, including Korea and Japan, has a harmful drinking rate as high as Vietnam. In the 5 years from 2010 to 2015, the rate of Vietnamese people drinking alcohol at a harmful level increased from 25% to more than 44%, contrary to the general trend in the world.

The Preventive Medicine Department also recommends that there is no standard for how much alcohol is considered harmful. The reason is that the risks and consequences of alcohol use vary depending on the age, gender and other biological characteristics of each person, as well as the circumstances and manner. That means there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. Scientific evidence shows that drinking very small amounts of alcohol can also cause certain health risks and consequences.

Alcohol is believed to cause cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon, liver and breast. The more you drink, the higher the risk, and cancer usually appears after 2 to 15 years of drinking, even after you have quit drinking. Hanoi Mental Hospital treats 450-500 alcoholics each year, compared to only a few dozen patients a year about 10 years ago. Some patients were alcoholics when they were only 15 years old.

It is estimated that Vietnamese people currently consume 3.4 billion liters of beer, 70 million liters of registered wine and about 200 million liters of unofficial wine each year. From 2010-2015, beer production increased by an average of 7% per year, wine production increased by 4.4% per year. Beer and wine prices are quite cheap, beer promotions are almost completely relaxed, advertising of wine over 15 degrees is prohibited.

According to VNE