©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Visitors toast with beer on the first day of the 182nd Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, September 19, 2015. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle/File Photo
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LONDON (Reuters) – The World Health Organization urged governments on Friday to consider gender when developing alcohol policies, warning that industry marketing increasingly targets women who face greater health risks than men. men due to low levels of alcohol consumption.
The Geneva-based WHO said there is strong evidence that men, women and minority groups are affected differently by alcohol-related harm and that the industry has adapted its marketing to target different genders .
“Despite this… alcohol control policies remain largely gender blind,” it reads, calling on governments to consider gender when designing control measures.
The industry is increasingly using gender-based approaches to attract consumers, he continued, adding that it is crucial to keep up with these changing marketing tactics.
After broad successes in addressing the public health impacts of other products such as cigarettes, WHO is increasingly turning its attention to tackling alcohol-related harm.
She pointed to studies that have found the industry increasingly targets women through everything from packaging to ads that emphasize aspects of feminism or female friendship.
According to some studies, women in Africa and India, for example, have been targeted with sugary drinks marketed as representing freedom and empowerment.
Men are also specifically targeted by alcohol marketing linked to traditional notions of masculinity and are at greater risk of drinking in large quantities, developing alcohol problems and aggressive or risky behaviour, the WHO highlighted.
But women suffer more harm at lower levels of alcohol use, she continued, citing studies that have found that alcohol use disorders progress more quickly for women and that women suffer more second-hand harm resulting from alcohol consumption by partners, family members or others.
The LGBTQ+ community also faces harms, often consuming more alcohol and having more substance use problems than cisgender and hetrosexual people, while the legacy of colonialism and economic marginalization has left indigenous populations at greater risk, the WHO said.
The WHO says alcohol consumption is a causal factor in more than 200 diseases and injuries, including some cancers, liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular disease.