Alcohol industry conflicts of interest: The pollution pathway from misinformation to alcohol harms

The alcohol industry plays a major role in global public health harm, and shapes policies and public perceptions to its benefit, through misinformation, lobbying and self-regulation. This article describes the alcohol industry’s conflicts of interest, particularly in the dissemination of misleading health information, its role in school-based alcohol ‘education’, and its resistance to evidence-based harm reduction measures. The industry’s activities contribute to a ‘pollution pathway’ that normalises alcohol consumption while obscuring its links to cancer, cardiovascular disease, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and other harms. Alcohol industry-funded organisations, such as Drinkaware, omit and distort the evidence on health risks and seek to shift the responsibility for harm onto consumers. Drawing parallels with the tobacco industry, we argue for stricter regulation, exclusion of the alcohol industry from health policymaking, and stronger public awareness campaigns to counter alcohol industry misinformation. Urgent action is needed to protect public health from alcohol industry influence and to mitigate alcohol-related harm.