Media Advisory

CDC Releases Two Reports on Excessive Alcohol Use and Related Harms

CDC's Guide to Community Preventive Services has released two reports on "Maintaining Limits on Days and Hours of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages to Prevent Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Related Harms". These reports were posted online today by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and will be published in their December 2010 issue.

The reports show that increasing the number of hours and days when alcohol can be sold in bars, restaurants, and liquor stores leads to greater alcohol use and related harms, especially motor-vehicle crashes. National, state, and local policies that remove previously banned alcohol sales on weekend days (usually Sundays) or that increase the hours of sale by 2 or more hours contribute to excessive drinking and many dangerous outcomes, including driving after drinking and alcohol-related assault and injury.

The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent, nonfederal body of public health experts, recommends maintaining limits on the days or hours during which alcohol can legally be sold, based upon a state-of-the-art systematic review process of all available studies on the topic.

Laws and policies regulating the availability of alcohol, including limits on the number of days of the week or hours when alcoholic beverages can be sold, are effective public health strategies to prevent the harms that result from drinking too much.

Excessive alcohol use causes more than 79,000 deaths in the U.S. each year and contributes to a wide range of health and social problems. For more information, see www.thecommunityguide.org

Background on The Community Guide

The Community Guide is an essential resource for people who want to know what works in public health. It provides evidence-based recommendations and findings about public health interventions and policies to improve health and promote safety. The Task Force on Community Preventive Services (Task Force)—an independent, nonfederal, volunteer body of public health and prevention experts—makes these findings and recommendations based on systematic reviews of scientific literature conducted under the auspices of the Community Guide. CDC provides ongoing scientific, administrative and technical support for the Task Force.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES