Denmark plans to raise the legal age limit from 16 to 18 years for consuming alcohol products with alcohol content below 16.5%.
Currently, Danish young people above 16 years of age can buy alcohol products with an alcohol content of less than 16.5% from retail stores. This comprises mostly beer and wine products. For alcohol products with alcohol content over 16.5%, the minimum age is 18 years. However, in bars and restaurants, the minimum legal age for serving alcohol is 18 years regardless of alcohol content.
When the new legal age limit comes into effect, the legal age to use alcohol will be a uniform 18 years regardless of alcohol content or place of sale.
As Movendi International reported, in late February a major retail chain, Coop Group, announced they supported raising the legal age limit to 18 years.
Health Authority releases new low-risk alcohol use guidelines
Meanwhile, the Danish Health Authority has released new guidelines advising those below 18 years to not consume any alcohol. The advice is part of the updated recommendations on low-risk alcohol use released by the authority.
Apart from advice to Danes below 18 years of age, the recommendation has also changed for adults. The Danish Health Authority lowered the amount of units of alcohol consumption per week that can be considered low-risk alcohol use. Accordingly, if any adult over 18 years is using alcohol, both men and women are now advised to consume no more than 10 units of alcohol per a week and no more than four units of alcohol in one day.
The new guidelines on low-risk alcohol use have reduced the amount of units of alcohol consumption from the previous maximum of 14 per week for men and seven per week for women.
The authority issued new and improved guidelines after reviewing the latest scientific evidence. It proves the negative effects of alcohol use on brain development of young people. Memory, learning, planning, decision making, and language can all be affected by alcohol, according to the Danish Health Authority.
We have a special focus on young people. We know that young people who use large amounts of alcohol at once are at increased risk from accidents, violence, and unwanted sex,” said Niels Sandø, head of the department at the Danish Health Authority, as per The Local.
Alcohol can also be harmful and affect both memory and learning ability in children and young people, when the brain still is developing. We have therefore improved our recommendations in relation to children and young people under 18 years such that we now advise against them using any alcohol,” added Mr. Sandø.
Niels Sandø, head of department, Danish Health Authority
Alcohol use and harm in young Danes
According to WHO Europe in 2016, among Danish youth between 15 to 19 years, about half of boys (50.6%) and over one-tenth of girls (14.9%) engaged in binge alcohol consumption.
15.9% of Danish youth between 15 to 19 years of age die due to alcohol.
In Denmark, young people grow up in a society with a heavy alcohol burden, exposed to the products, such as ultra-cheap high-strength products targeting youth, and practices, such as predatory marketing, of the alcohol without almost any protection.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) reports, in 2016 Denmark had a total per capita alcohol consumption of 10.4 liters – which is above the average in the WHO European region, the heaviest alcohol consuming region in the world.
Among adults who consume alcohol, men use 19.5 liters per capita.
Due to this high amount of population-level alcohol consumption and the lack of evidence-based alcohol policy solutions, people and communities in Denmark face pervasive alcohol harm.
- For example, 10.9% of Danish men experience alcohol use disorder and 5.6% are alcohol dependent.
- More than 900 people die from cancer due to alcohol.
- And more than 500 people die from liver cirrhosis due to alcohol, every year.
Denmark has not achieved substantial reductions of per capita alcohol consumption since 2010. The alcohol industry has been blocking the development of policy solutions that would save lives and improve health.
The country does not a written national alcohol policy, has no public health oriented, common sense alcohol availability limits, and has a very low legal minimum age limit.
Raising the minimum legal age for alcohol use to 18 years, uniformly regardless of alcohol content or place of sale, will help to much better prevent and reduce harm to children and youth caused by the products and practices of the alcohol industry in Denmark.
Sources
Euro News: “Denmark proposes ban on selling cigarettes to people born after 2010“
The Local: “Denmark advises no alcohol consumption for under-18s“