Passive drinking

Table from the 2010 DrugScience study ranking various drugs (legal and illegal) based on statements by drug-harm experts. This study rated alcohol the most harmful drug overall, and the only drug more harmful to others than to the users themselves.[1]

Passive drinking, analogous to passive smoking, refers to the adverse consequences experienced by those around someone who is experiencing alcohol intoxication. These include the unborn fetus and children of parents who drink excessively, drunk drivers, accidents, domestic violence and alcohol-related sexual assaults.[2]

On 2 February 2010 Eurocare, the European Alcohol Policy Alliance, organised a seminar on "The Social Cost of Alcohol : Passive drinking".[3] On 21 May 2010 the World Health Organization reached a consensus at the World Health Assembly on a resolution to confront the harmful use of alcohol.[4]

  1. ^ Nutt DJ, King LA, Phillips LD (November 2010). "Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis". Lancet. 376 (9752): 1558–1565. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.690.1283. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6. PMID 21036393. S2CID 5667719.
  2. ^ Smith, Rebecca (16 March 2010). "'Passive drinking' is blighting the nation, Sir Liam Donaldson warns". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 March 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
  3. ^ "The Social Cost of Alcohol : Passive drinking – Eurocare event". European Alcohol Policy Alliance. 25 February 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
  4. ^ "Call for action to reduce the harmful use of alcohol". World Health Organization. 21 May 2010. Archived from the original on 23 May 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2010.