French in a state of alcoholic denial

France regards itself as a nation which knows how to take its drink - unlike, say, the Scandinavians or the British - but a hard-hitting report presented to the Government yesterday suggested the entire country is in a state of alcoholic denial.

One in 10 French people has a drink problem, the report says, and five people die of alcohol-linked accidents or diseases in France each day.

Spreading drink consumption over a longer period, as France does, does not necessarily reduce alcohol-related social ills.

Addiction to alcohol in France is partly rooted in politics, says report author, TV journalist and recovering alcoholic, Herve Chabalier.

The influence of wine-growers and the wider drinks industry on the Government means the dangers of drink have never been properly addressed, Chabalier said.

The one exception (a law passed in 1991 restricting drink advertising) was not fully applied and is now being dismantled, he complained.

Chabalier, author of a best-selling book last year on his own near-destruction by drink, calls for all bottles of wine and other drinks to have a health warning label.

He also calls for a national campaign to warn youths of the dangers of alcohol.

"Culturally, alcohol has always been considered here as something convivial," Chabalier said. "We must stop treating it like an everyday consumer need, like baguettes. It must be de-normalised."

The chances of Chabalier's warning being heeded are slender to non-existent.

The French wine industry, reeling from increased competition abroad and falling consumption at home, rejected the report as "alarmist" and unpatriotic.

France does not have a tradition of binge-drinking or obvious public drunkenness like Britain. It has a less-visible problem of constant, steady consumption of booze - often starting early in the day. This makes the problem less visible but not necessarily less acute.

Chabalier also complains that the French medical profession and health industry fails to regard alcoholism as a disease, and provides few resources for drink-related illnesses.

- Independent