12 October 2009

Church can help the community on alcohol

Brisbane, Queensland
Nathan Brown

Dr John Ashton is proud of the Adventist church's stand on alcohol and believes the church has something important to offer our communities on this destructive social problem.

A research scientist for Sanitarium Health Food Company and adjunct associate professor of biomedical sciences at Victoria University, Dr Ashton spoke as a featured workshop presenter at the South Queensland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists' camp-meeting on September 21, coinciding with the launch of the second edition of his co-authored book Uncorked! The Hidden Hazards of Alcohol.

"I am very passionately concerned that the harm done by alcohol is totally underrated by many in our community and this needs attention," says Dr Ashton. His presentation also addressed the lies of alcohol advertising and touched on the impact of alcohol on individual health, as well as talking about the social impacts of alcohol consumption.

Dr Ashton is pleased he has been able to produce a second edition of his book, published by Signs Publishing Company, and update some of the information about alcohol's impacts on society. "There were statistics to be updated," he explained, "in particular the teenage drinking problem seems to have become worse and particularly binge drinking among young women, which is particularly concerning."

He also cites statements by Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd last year about binge drinking as having contributed to an environment in which these issues can be discussed. "This brought immense media attention to the problem of alcohol and has helped create a media acceptability of reporting on these problems," he says. "Up to this time the media has been very reluctant to raise the issue, which made the re-release of the book with an update even more important.

There is no other book like it worldwide that I am aware of that covers these issues," Dr Ashton addss. "And it's important that this message gets out to young people in particular."

Since Uncorked! was originally released in 2004, a number of church departments, ministries and members have used the book to raise awareness in their local communities. Among these has been Adventist Health Ministries in the Greater Sydney Conference. According to director Malcolm Rea, copies of the book have been donated to approximately 70 school libraries in southwestern Sydney.

"With the new edition of Uncorked!, we expect this project will be continued and expanded," he says. Mr Rea says his "more ambitious plan" is to develop an educational resource package on alcohol for schools in Australia and New Zealand, with Uncorked! as the central textbook.

"Media attention to the problems of binge drinkers and drink driving accidents has done nothing to reduce access to alcohol, ban advertising or change an increasing social problem in our society," he says. "The re-release of Uncorked! provides an excellent opportunity for people to raise the issue, stand up and say, ‘We have had enough!'"

Mr Rea suggests church groups and members can use this information to lobby politicians to restrict alcohol advertising, work with like-minded organisations or other church groups, or simply educate their own families about this insidious problem in our society.

Uncorked! is available from Adventist Book Centres.

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