A hard-hitting new report on alcoholism in France – Alcool: le parler vrai; le parler simple (Alcohol – the simple truth) – suggests that in the world’s wine capital, alcohol-related deaths among men are higher than anywhere in Europe.
With 45,000 deaths a year, the level is 30% higher than the European average according to the report by well-known journalist Hervé Chabalier.
Although the amount of alcohol consumed in France has fallen (from 17.7 litres per head in the 1960s to 9.3 litres today), it remains the France’s intoxicant of choice. Five million French men and women have social, psychological and medical problems linked to alcohol and 2-3 million are dependent on the drug. Every year 700-3,000 babies are born with foetal alcohol syndrome.
