WHO reports high illegal alcohol consumption in Qatar

A recent report by the World Health Organization throws interesting light on alcohol consumption and its health effects in 194 countries.

The report Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2014, says in Qatar the sale of alcohol is mostly limited to  to middle and high-income expats and tourists. According to WHO – most of the population does not drink. The organisation classified 93 per cent of the country's population as ''abstainers.''

That meant, on an overall per-capita basis, the country's consumption of beer, wine and spirits was relatively low. Averaged out over the entire population, consumption was at 1.5 litres of pure alcohol annually between 2008-10.

The figure stood lower than the global average of 6.2 litres and put the country behind the UAE (4.3 litres) and Bahrain (2.1 litres). The consumption, though was more that that of Oman (0.9 litres) as also the officially dry states of Saudi Arabia (0.2 litres) and Kuwait (0.1 litres).

However, if the country's non-drinkers were to be discounted, the numbers told a different story - drinkers in Qatar consumed an average of 22.7 litres of pure alcohol annually, which worked out to the equivalent of over 75 standard bottles of hard liquor a year, or 3.6 typical drinks a day.

Meanwhile, the WHO has called on governments worldwide take tougher action ainst heavy alcohol consumption.

''More needs to be done to protect populations from the negative health consequences of alcohol consumption,'' Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO's assistant director-general for Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health said in a statement Monday, to coincide with the release of a new report.

According to the "Global status report on alcohol and health 2014", alcohol could not only lead to violence and injuries, it also increased the risk of over 200 diseases, including liver cirrhosis and several types of cancers.

The report further points out that alcohol was killing or contributing to the deaths of 3.3 million people around the world every year.

The report also showed that 7.6 per cent of men's deaths around the world and 4 per cent of women's deaths was related to alcohol abuse. The steady increase in alcohol consumption  among women was also a cause for concern, the report said.