Objective: not a drop of alcohol this month. For the third year in a row in France, volunteers are working from Saturday 1er January to the challenge of “ Dry January “ (“Janvier sec”, in French), a “month without alcohol” launched on the model of operations in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries.
A public health operation, without the help of Public Health France. “We don’t have government assistance. We are still without means “, regrets the lawyer Claude Rambaud, vice-president of the federation of associations France Assos Santé, which oversees this campaign. This year again, the operation will have no support from the State, which abruptly withdrew from the operation at the end of 2019, yielding to the active lobbying of alcoholics.
Lasting effect
If January is a good time to take a break, after holidays often marked by heavy alcohol consumption, the aim of the operation is not only to give your body a break, it is also to surrender account for yourself of what changes in a daily without alcohol.
“The idea is to try to take this break, but the campaign is not at all judgmental: everyone can try to measure their relationship to alcohol during that month”, explains Mme Rambaud. This type of campaign is proving more and more effective in the field of public health. Instead of emphasizing the risks represented by a substance – in this case, alcohol – we stress the advantages of slowing down its consumption. Participants are also energized by a challenge that brings together many people at the same time.
“Many people who take this break then continue” less alcohol, reports Mme Rambaud, on the basis of studies carried out in Anglo-Saxon countries. “It launches a momentum”, she insists.
No way
On the same principle as the Month without tobacco, launched each year in the fall, the “Dry January” does not however have access to the same means. The Tobacco Free Month has been supported for years by the State, via the Public Health France agency, while the “Dry January” is only the result of associations, admittedly joined by several municipalities such as that of Lyon. “It has nothing to do with what is happening in the United Kingdom, where they are extremely supported by the government”, regrets Mme Rambaud.
The associations accuse the State of giving in to the alcohol lobbies, in the first place the wine growers, who raise the specter of a hygienist campaign and unsuitable for ” the art of living “ French-style.
On the side of Public Health France, which had almost embarked on the campaign for its first year, in 2020, but had given up in extremis, the balancing act continues. The agency, which depends on the Ministry of Health, does not hide its interest in the “Dry January”; it has carried out several surveys on its progress and its experience by the participants. But it keeps away from direct involvement.
Poorly understood health risks
Public health France is placed “In support” organizers of the “Dry January”, explained in the fall its general manager, Geneviève Chêne, emphasizing other campaigns of the agency against the risks associated with alcoholism. These public operations are, however, more focused on the risks linked to behavior – aggressiveness, danger on the road – than on those which directly affect the health of drinkers.
However, these health risks are often poorly understood, as evidenced by a frequent misunderstanding on the “Dry January”. The campaign does not only concern heavy drinkers, because moderate but regular consumption also represents a health risk.
“For non-participants, the target of the operation is primarily dependent people or young consumers who do not control their consumption”, explains a study carried out by Public Health France based on individual interviews, and published in December in the journal Alcoholology and addictology. “They therefore do not feel concerned”, conclude the authors, believing that there would be everything to gain by better publicizing the “Dry January”.
Higher mortality in France
In a collective expert opinion published on June 4, the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) reported that “Mortality attributable to alcohol is higher in France than elsewhere in Europe”. Alcohol is “A drug, a carcinogenic molecule that is toxic to many organs (…), directly or indirectly responsible for around sixty diseases », Remind the experts.
Of the 41,000 deaths attributable to alcohol, 16,000 are linked to cancer, 9,900 to cardiovascular diseases, 6,800 to digestive diseases, 5,400 to an external cause (accident or suicide) and more than 3 000 to another pathology (mental illnesses, behavioral disorders, for example).
In France, according to Inserm’s expertise, “About 23% of the population [adulte] would have occasional risky consumption, and around 7% would have chronic risky consumption or one presenting the possibility of dependence ”, Summarizes the expertise. Among men, 24% have risky drinking; among adult women, 9% – among 18-35 year olds, 30.7% of men and 12.9% of women, and among those over 50, 35 to 37% of men and 13 to 14% women.
The impact of Covid-19 was not analyzed in this expertise, completed before the pandemic. Nevertheless, the latter seems to have favored high-risk consumption, and even more so for women, in view of the increase in consultations in addiction treatment, support and prevention centers.