Letters | Is Hong Kong’s alcohol consumption really cause for concern?

Readers discuss the city’s per capita alcohol consumption in the context of other places, and the government’s planning of large-scale events

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Hong Kong’s alcohol consumption per capita was 2.45 litres in 2020. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:30am, 9 Oct 2024

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I refer to “Liquor tax cut is not worth the risks to public health and society” (September 26). The letter cited figures from the World Health Organization and said that there is no safe drinking level.

These are top-level statements that do not look into the details at the national or regional level. Countries and regions differ from one another because of culture, tradition and religion.

Hong Kong’s alcohol consumption per capita was 2.45 litres in 2020. This figure should be compared with the world’s figure to reflect the seriousness of the issue, if any. Global alcohol consumption per capita stood at 4.9 litres. The European Union had the highest rate at 9.8 litres. The latest figures I could find for the Western Pacific region of which Hong Kong is a part were 7.3 litres in 2016. The figure for Hong Kong is very low in comparison.

The WHO’s news release “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health”, dated January 4, 2023, quotes WHO staff from Europe and research results from the European Union. Many people, including professionals, seem to believe that these findings apply to Hong Kong, but that is not the best approach.

Hong Kong’s Department of Health has cited research from a Lancet paper about the carcinogenic nature of alcohol consumption. The department’s table on the risks of different types of cancer starts at 12 grams per day. Hong Kong’s annual alcohol consumption per capita of 2.45 litres works out to around 6 grams a day, which is clearly not of research interest. I was unable to find any relevant research work published related to 6 grams a day.

Your correspondent wrote that “a fall in alcohol prices is known to increase consumption, and vice versa”. This seems to be common sense but it is not necessarily true. A person will not automatically eat more rice if the price of rice drops significantly.