Ruth Engs has published the following historically oriented letter in
the current issue of *Journal of Studies on Alcohol*.  Its substance is
compressed from a paper she presented at the Kettil Bruun meetings in
Edinburgh last June--the full text and references of which can be found
at Ruth's website at www.indiana.edu/~engs.  I will forward any
comments or discussion to Engs.  The letter is cross-posted to ATHG-L
with Ruth's kind permission.
 
Ron Roizen
 
 
 
Ruth C.  Engs, Cycles of Social Reform:  Is the Current
Anti-Alcohol Movement Cresting?  *Journal of Studies on
Alcohol*, 58(2):223-224, 1997
 
Ruth C.  Engs, Professor, Indiana University, Poplars 615,
Bloomington, IN 47405
 
Dear Editor:
 
The purpose of this letter is to briefly present some
hypotheses for debate.  I propose that there are signs that
suggest a cresting of the current anti-alcohol movement, and
that prohibition of alcohol for those under 21 years of age
has done little to decrease negative alcohol-related
behaviors in this age group.  In America we often ignore the
past.  This leads to the repetition of similar social
policies that were not effective in previous generations.
The current anti-alcohol movement cannot really be discussed
without some historical reference putting it into
perspective.  In general, anti-alcohol movements are likely
to be caused by many factors, for example, the clash of
values between New World immigrants from different areas of
Europe, stress from rapid urbanization and grass roots
concerns about specific drinking-related problems.  In
addition collective amnesia of past social events, because
of the death of the oldest generation, may lead to a 70-year
cycle of health and social reforms concerning a variety of
issues.
 
In Europe, two different drinking cultures developed in
antiquity.  In the Mediterranean regions, wine consumption
with meals by all members of the culture evolved, along with
a norm of moderation.  In the more northern and eastern
regions of Europe, drinking to intoxication of grain-based
beverages at feasts emerged, along with ambivalence towards
alcohol.  The Roman invasions brought the wine culture to
central Europe.  In the upheaval of the Early Middle ages
the Nordic patterns of the Germanic invaders became
assimilated into the Mediterranean norm, creating a
"blended pattern" in central Western Europe and
England.  Areas untouched by the Romans retained the
Northern feast drinking patterns.  During the Protestant
Reformation those areas of northern Europe which became
Protestant also tended to be the areas with ambivalence
towards alcohol.  Immigrants from the different European
regions, the descendants of whom still make up the bulk of
American society, brought their drinking patterns to the New
World, thus setting the stage for cultural clashes.  In
part, the first two anti-alcohol movements may have been
fueled by cultural clashes between the Protestant
Establishment and impoverished immigrants with different
religious backgrounds and drinking patterns.
 
In the United States there have been three clean-living or
social reform movements during the past 200 years.  These
movements occur every 70-years.  During the approximate 30
year reform phase of the cycle, opposition toward alcohol,
tobacco, drugs, sexual-related behaviors and certain foods
and advocacy for exercise, pure water, vegetarian diets and
the prevention and elimination of other health, social and
environmental problems have been common.
 
In the anti-alcohol aspect of each of the three movements,
social problem that is related to negative behaviors
associated with heavy drinking is identified.  These social
problems were:  poverty and disease among liquor-drinking
Irish immigrants in the first movement (1830s-1850s);
"saloons," which were gathering places for
immigrants beginning to flex politic al power, in the second
(1880s - 1910s); and "drunk driving," seen as the
main reason for highway fatalities among youth who typically
drink to intoxication as per the Nordic feast drinking
pattern in the current movement.  Public efforts to
eliminate the problem then ensue.  When the problem is not
immediately eradicated, alcohol is then seen as the problem,
and the substance becomes "demonized." Temperance
(moderation) sentiments are then replaced by abstinence and
public policy prohibition measures.  A large part of the
population ignores these measures, however, and continues to
consume alcohol illegally.  This in turn causes other social
problems and forces public policy to compensate.
 
The current movement started during the late 1970s.  About
that time some states raised the legal drinking age because
of the fear that increases in fatal motor vehicle accidents
resulted from the lowering of the drinking age laws during
the Vietnam War years.  As in the two prior movements,
"grass roots" efforts began.  Organizations, such
as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Drunk
Driving and the Center for Science in the Public Interest,
and various governmental agencies formed or advocated
measures to combat drunk driving and negative behaviors
related to alcohol consumption.  Public policy efforts
ensued, such as severe penalties against drunk driving,
lowering of legal BAC to designate impaired driving,
mandatory signs in California drinking establishments
concerning fetal alcohol syndrome, 21 year old alcohol
purchase laws, government-sponsored abstinence education in
schools and colleges and warning labels on alcoholic
beverages.  Advocacy for increased taxes and the elimination
of media advertisement is still on the agenda of
anti-alcohol forces.
 
Not since the early part of this century had there been so
much anti-alcohol rhetoric as that in the late 1980s and
early 1990s.  As was found in the earlier anti-alcohol
movements, alcohol again became demonized.  Alcohol
consumption, the alcohol beverage industry and even
individuals who advocated moderate drinking were seen as not
respectable.  Some health-related organizations even
eliminated the "cocktail hour" at annual
conferences.
 
However, as in the past, these alcohol countermeasures had
only temporary effects on the social problems they were
attempting to eliminate.  Although fatal motor vehicle
crashes and consumption among youth decreased for about a
decade, they are now on the rise.  Among university
students, an increase in problems related to heavy drinking
began to occur soon after the federal 21 years of age
purchase laws were passed in 1987.  In addition there have
been increases in alcohol consumption among high school
youth during the past year or so.
 
There are signs that the current anti-alcohol movement may
be on the wane.  The first sign of a backlash toward the
current movement may have been the 60 Minutes television
program in 1991 called the "French Paradox." It
discussed the fact that, even though the French have a very
high fat diet, they have a lower prevalence of heart disease
due to their wine consumption.  Since 1993 there has been an
acceleration of research and reports related to the
correlation of moderate drinking and longevity and to the
health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.  Congress
questioned the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (a
tax-supported federal agency) on its abstinence-only
orientation for educational programs.  A change in the
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 1996 (Department of
Agriculture, 1996) stated that moderate alcohol consumption,
as opposed to abstinence in the 1990 edition (Department of
Agriculture, 1990) might be conducive to good health.  In
March 1996 the state of Louisiana proposed lowering its
legal drinking age to 18 years.  Recently an administrator
at a Colorado university proposed lowering the drinking age
for students in certain circumstances.  Over the next few
years various other signs of the waning of the current
anti-alcohol movement will likely occur.
 
Because of the cresting in the anti-alcohol wave, now is the
time to reevaluate the restrictive policies and educational
programs implemented during the past 15 years.  there should
be changes in education programs and public policy measures
that allow for different values concerning alcohol and its
consumption.  These changes should include more balanced
approaches to alcohol and its consumption in school and
community programming rather than just abstinence education.
 
Alcohol education needs to be part of the comprehensive
school health program and should include the following
information:  the history and manufacturing of alcohol;
variations in cultural values, norms and attitudes
concerning drinking; the social, physiological and
psychological health benefits and consequences of alcohol
consumption; responsible choices concerning drinking in our
society; and techniques for safe and moderate drinking for
those who might choose to drink at some point in their life.
 
At the community level various organizations such as
service, legal, religious and governmental groups, along
with the alcohol beverage industry, need to be involved with
alcohol information and education.  Alcohol needs to be
recognized as a substance that can have both positive and
negative effects just like other substances or activities.
 
In terms of public policy there needs to be a lowering of
the legal purchase age to 19, the age at which many young
adults are involved with postsecondary education away from
home.  Parents need to be allowed to serve alcohol to their
children in public places such as restaurants.  As a society
we need to begin working toward developing a consensus as to
what constitutes positive and negative alcohol use.  there
should be legal sanctions against negative behaviors
resulting from alcohol abuse such as driving while
intoxicated and violence.  In summary, now, at the crest of
this current movement, is the time to take some positive
action for more reasonable policies concerning alcohol use
in our country.
 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
For a copy of a complete bibliography, download [i.e., at
Engs' website--www.indiana.edu/~engs, R.R.] the 1996 Kettil
Bruun presentation entitled, "Has the American clean living
(anti-alcohol) movement crested?"
 
Department of Agriculture.  Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, Washington:  USDA-DHHS, 1990.  A1.77:232/990.
Department of Agriculture.  Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, 4th edition, Washington:  USDA-DHHS, 1996, pp.
51-52.
 
Engs, R.C.  Do traditional western European drinking
practices have origins in antiquity?  Addict Res.
3:227-239, 1995.
 
Engs, R.C.  Resurgence of a new "clean living"
movement in the United States.  J.  School Hlth
61(4):155-159, 1991.
 
Gusfield, J.R.  Symbolic Crusade:  Status Politics and the
American Temperance Movement.  In Kelleher, M.E., MacMurray,
B.K.  and Shapiro, T.M.  (Eds.) Drugs and Society:  A
Critical Reader, Dubuque, Iowa:  Kendall/Hunt, 1983, pp.
30-36.
 
Lender, M.E.  and Martin, J.K.  Drinking in America:  A
History (The Revised and Expaned Edition), New York:  Free
Press, 1987.
 
Whorton, J.C.  Crusaders for Fitness:  The History of
American Health Reformers.  Princeton, N.J.:  Princeton
Univ.  Press, 1982.
 
Note:  this letter was adapted from a paper presented,
Kettil Bruun Epidemiology meeting, Edinburgh Scotland, 1996
entitled, "Has the American Clean Living (anti-alcohol)
movement crested?"
--
Ron Roizen, Ph.D.
voice:  510-848-9123
fax:    510-848-9210
home:   510-848-9098
1818 Hearst Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94703
U.S.A.
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]