2023-06-20 15:52:18
Saturday evening, on the sidelines of a rugby match, the head of state was filmed drinking a beer in one go under the encouragement of the players. An image specific to encouraging “binge drinking”, are moved by public health specialists.
In 1954, the brand new Chairman of the Board, Pierre Mendès France, incurred the wrath of Pierre Poujade and with him the bistro owners and winegrowers of France, by being served a glass of milk during an official reception in the United States. . “It’s a slap (…) that every Frenchman received that day, even if he is not a drunk!” exclaims the trade unionist. Sixty years later, it’s a completely different image that shocks: that of Emmanuel Macron swallowing a beer “bottom up”, Saturday evening in the locker room of the Stade Toulouse winner of the Top 14, under the encouragement of rugby players.
A carefully prepared gesture of communication or the spontaneity of a moment of joy? On CNews on Tuesday morning, government spokesman, former Minister of Health and neurologist Olivier Véran seemed to lean towards the second hypothesis: “Let the doctor who has never done this once in his life throw me the first beer. The President of the Republic is a politician. So he’s a man. We are often criticized for being disconnected, for acting in a robotic way… (…) We are not in absolute asceticism, prevention does not mean zero consumption, it means that we pay attention to all situations that can put us in danger, which is not the case with the President of the Republic.
However, “a president should not do that!”, judged on twitter the deputy and spokesperson for the PS group in the National Assembly Arthur Delaporte, while others denounced a misplaced virilism or a behavior worthy of a president of a student association. It’s not so much the fact of drinking a beer that shocked, but to swallow it in one go to the cheers of the audience. “We are fighting to no longer associate sport and alcohol, we are fighting against binge drinking… And we are seeing this detestable image arrive, this inappropriate, childish behavior, put in the front line by our president! It’s not a problem of left and right, it’s a public health problem”, chokes Professor Mickael Naassila, president of the French Society of Alcoholism and member of the Alcohol Research Group. and drug addiction (University of Picardie Jules Verne/Inserm). “The President of the Republic has an example value in terms of health behavior, for his part commented on BFMTV Bernard Basset, president of the association Addictions France. In this case, it associates sport and alcohol consumption, partying and alcohol consumption (…), so for us it is totally negative. It did not surprise us, he has a habit of insidiously promoting alcohol.
There is a public health scourge when young people get drunk at an accelerated rate with strong alcohol or beer.
This is indeed not the first time that Emmanuel Macron has defended the wine industry and the consumption of alcohol. “As long as I am president, there will be no amendment to toughen the Évin law”, he announced in February 2018 on the sidelines of a meeting with farmers, claiming to drink “wine at noon and in the evening” . But it was then a question of defending a so-called “reasoned” consumption, even if we know the limits of this notion. In 2018, Emmanuel Macron also added: “There is a public health scourge when young people get drunk at an accelerated rate with strong alcohol or beer.”
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And this is where the shoe pinches for public health specialists, in the images of Saturday evening. Drinking a single beer, even bottoms up, is not stricto sensu binge drinking, this practice which consists of a rapid and massive consumption of alcohol (at least 6 glasses in 2 hours, indicates Inserm). But it is not a reasoned consumption and “pleasure”, underline the specialists of public health, and to do it in front of the cameras values this dangerous behavior. “We know that drinking quickly has deleterious effects, explains Mickael Naassila. For an equivalent amount, rapid consumption of alcohol leads to greater brain damage and alterations, in part because it will lead to inflammation. Rapidly rising blood alcohol levels are the ones involved in “blackout,” that phenomenon where you seem to be functioning normally, but your brain no longer registers memories. And when characterizing the severity of alcohol consumption, one of the most important criteria is the number of drinks drunk per hour.
Alcohol, a social cost of 118 billion euros annually
“The Head of State is really helping to trivialize this, and to trivialize the image of alcohol among young people,” denounces the addictologist. However, the phenomenon is widespread, noted in 2021 a collective expertise of Inserm, with according to various studies nearly half of young people aged 17 declaring to have had at least one occasional significant alcohol consumption in the previous month. Mickael Naassila more generally deplores “a significant lack of knowledge about the effects of alcohol in the population”, and recalls that nearly a quarter of French people think that drinking a little wine reduces the risk of cancer, according to the Cancer Barometer 2021 of Public Health France (we actually know that the risk of cancer increases from the first drink of alcohol, which is a proven carcinogen). “There is a tobacco plan, where is the alcohol plan?” asks the specialist.
However, alcohol consumption is very expensive for public finances: in the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin of June 13, Inserm researchers indicated that alcohol in France causes “49,000 deaths per year for a social cost estimated at 118 billion euros” and pleaded for “a real policy of risk and damage reduction through a reduction in consumption”. Another study published in the BEH in 2015 showed that excessive alcohol consumption was one of the main reasons for hospitalization in our country, with in 2012 more than 580,000 hospital stays had been induced by alcohol, ie 2% of the total, more than 2,700,000 days in psychiatry (10% of the total), and more than 2,000,000 days in follow-up care and rehabilitation (6%). “The estimated cost amounts to nearly 3.6% of all hospital expenditure in 2012,” the authors concluded.
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