Bottles of
Saigon beer and Hanoi Beer are seen displayed for sale at a mini-mart in Hanoi,
Vietnam September 1, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Kham
45 percent of Vietnamese admitted to
consuming alcohol.
With 77 percent of men and 11 percent of
women admitting to drinking alcohol within 30 days prior to being surveyed,
Vietnam is increasingly concerned about related health problems as well as
traffic safety.
A study released yesterday by the Ministry of
Health said that the rate of male drinkers increased by 11 percent while the
rate of female went up by 6 percent compared to 2010 figures.
The study was carried out in all 63 provinces
with the participation of some 4,000 Vietnamese aged between 18 and 69.
It revealed that 44 percent of men drank
alcohol at a hazardous level, which means within 30 days, there was at least
one time they drank more than 180 milliliters of hard wine or more than 6 cans
of beer.
About half of the drinkers drove after two
hours of drinking.
Doctor Pham Thi Hoang Anh, head of
HealthBridge Canada in Vietnam, a non-governmental organization working in
health improvement, said that it’s now easy for Vietnamese youngsters access
alcohol. The country only bans commercials of drinks with alcohol content of 15
percent or higher.
Anh said policies to control alcohol
consumption in Vietnam are not strict enough amid low prices of wine and beer.
Over the past decade, while global
consumption of alcoholic beverages almost stayed the same, Vietnam was one of
the few countries with rising trends, nearly quadruple the world’s average.
The doctor recommended that the government
should consider passing the Law on Alcohol Control, which draft was initially
planned for submission by the Ministry of Health in 2017 but it has now been
delayed.
According to the World Health Organization,
alcohol is one of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide, with 20 percent of
drinkers dying of traffic accidents; 30 percent of cancer and 50 percent of
cirrhosis.
In Vietnam, more than 40 percent of road
fatalities or some 4,000 deaths were related to drunk driving last year, data
from the Traffic Safety Committee showed.
Under the new law passed last August, any
trace of alcohol found in a driver's body will result in a fine of up to $800.
On the supply side, domestic beer production
has shown no sign of slowing down this year even though the government has
imposed higher taxes on the beverage.
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