African experience supports view that the global alcohol industry should have no role in the formulation of public health policies.

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The editors of Addiction have indicated their endorsement of the view that there is no role for the global alcohol industry in the formulation of public health policies 1. Having worked in the area of alcohol policy in sub-Saharan Africa for over two decades, this strikes me as an entirely logical position. Far from seeking simply to offer their views on matters related to alcohol policy, alcohol industry organizations have prepared draft policies for at least four sub-Saharan African countries 2. Whether the national policies were influenced by such drafts would be difficult to establish definitively, but it is noteworthy that they 3-6 underplay evidence-based broad public health approaches to addressing alcohol problems, focusing instead on individually based interventions that would be expected to have a more limited effect 2. Industry activities that look very much as though they are designed to influence government policies in South Africa have included sponsored trips for parliamentarians to Australia, cofunding with the Department of Social Development a strategic planning workshop on fetal alcohol syndrome, and partnering with the Department of Trade and Industry on an underage drinking initiative. The last of these, while seemingly uncontentious, has been criticized for promoting educational and informational campaigns that have a weak evidence base 7. In recent months the alcohol industry has gone to great lengths to challenge South African government efforts to severely restrict the advertising of alcohol products. Among other things, it funded a study on the impact of a ban on alcohol advertising. The resulting report 8 has been challenged for underplaying the extent of problem drinking, ignoring the complexities in the relationship between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption, overstating the economic impact of an alcohol advertising ban and promoting ineffective solutions for addressing alcohol abuse 9. At a local level we have also seen the alcohol industry, and particularly traders, lobby successfully to replace legislation implemented in Cape Town that severely curtailed alcohol availability, a strategy found in other contexts to be effective in reducing alcohol-related harms 10. Given the examples above, and marketing practices and product developments that seemingly promote drinking in greater quantities, it makes sense to keep industry vested interests away from alcohol policy formulation in Africa and elsewhere. None.