Addiction Blue Cross now refrains from specifying drinking quantities for alcohol
The Swiss Blue Cross addiction support organization has published six new recommendations on alcohol consumption. These no longer include drinking quantities, as even small amounts of alcohol can be harmful, as the organization announced.
27.02.2025, 10:00
SDA
The Blue Cross has dispensed with the drinking quantities because "no healthy amount of alcohol is known", Managing Director Marc Peterhans was quoted as saying in Thursday's press release. The adaptation of the recommendations had become necessary after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that no amount of alcohol consumption was safe.
The aim is to prevent harm, he added. The new Blue Cross recommendations are also based on the position of the WHO and other countries such as Canada, Australia and the German Nutrition Society.
The healthiest life is one without alcohol, and drinking less alcohol is also better. There are also ways of drinking alcohol that are better than others - such as drinking slowly or eating before and during alcohol consumption. Adults also have a role model function in this regard and should act as such, the report continued.
In Switzerland, alcohol causes social and medical damage: 250,000 to 300,000 people suffer from alcohol dependency - around three percent of the population. Around ten percent of the population also have a problematic consumption. An estimated 1700 children are born with damage caused by alcohol - and around 1600 people die from it every year. According to the Blue Cross, this translates into an economic loss of CHF 2.8 billion.
Seven types of cancer, all related to digestive organs and breast cancer in women, are linked to alcohol. The WHO also assumes that half of the cancer cases attributable to alcohol are due to light or moderate alcohol consumption.
