WHO Expert Committee on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption

The WHO Expert Committee was assembled as a part of the follow up of the WHA resolution 58.26: Public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol in 2005. The expert committee is an international group of experts that provides WHO with the latest scientific and technical advice on a broad range of medical and public health subjects. Members of such expert groups are all drawn from the expert advisory panels and serve in their personal capacities rather than as representatives of governments or other bodies.

This report of a WHO Expert Committee reviews the health and social consequences of alcohol consumption and disease burden attributable to alcohol in the context of alcohol-related harm and recent trends in alcohol consumption worldwide. Based on the reviews of available evidence, including the latest data on the contribution of alcohol consumption to the global disease burden, the Committee makes several recommendations emphasizing WHO’s role in coordinating a global response, and the need for global action to reduce alcohol-related harm through effective mechanisms of international action and country support.
The Committee recommends a range of strategies and policy options that have a sound evidence base and global relevance for reducing alcohol-related harm, emphasizing that their adaptation and implementation at the national and sub-national levels should take into account specifi c cultural and legal contexts and the local configuration of alcohol problems. The Committee also recommends that WHO should support governments, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, in developing, implementing and evaluating national and sub-national evidence-based policies, action plans and programmes. The Committee’s conclusions and recommendations have signifi cant implications for future developments in this area. 

• The mechanisms of harm from alcohol: intoxication, dependence and toxicity
• Alcohol availability and consumption in the world
• The harm attributable to alcohol consumption
• Effective strategies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm
• Making alcohol policy
• Implications for international action
• Recommendations