The Arnoldus Group of the Belgian Brewers’ Federation commissioned the Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid (HIVA) in 1988 to conduct a study of the “Social costs and benefits of alcohol consumption and abuse in Belgium”. The research, under the leadership of Professor Jozef Pacolet, was recently published. The conclusions of the study confirm the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption for the health and the adverse effects of overindulgence.

Driving under the influence of alcohol was found to be a major cause of heavy costs, ditto the effects of alcohol abuse for commerce and industry. Prevention in our country is also conspicuous by its absence.
The negative profit-and-loss balance comes to about 4.5 thousand million Euros.

Anxious to set these figures in a more general socio-economic context, the Belgian Brewers approached the Federaal Planbureau to conduct an analysis of the alcoholic beverages sector. The data refers to the year 1995.
Analysis revealed that employment in 1995 directly or indirectly connected with the production of alcoholic beverages, distribution and the hotels and catering trade amounted to 106 315 units, i.e., 2.76% of total employment.
The preparation of alcoholic beverages accounted - directly and indirectly - for a share of 0.72% of the gross domestic product (GDP). If we calculate the share of GDP arising from production, distribution, hotels, pubs and restaurants, etc., we obtain a total GDP share of 2.14%.

The Belgian Brewers note that in 2000 the breweries were responsible for approximately 79% of the total production of alcoholic beverages, and that a good 94% of the value-added in this branch of industry was generated by the breweries.
Domestic demand for beer has fallen off somewhat in recent years, yet the breweries managed to increase production through increased exports.

The Belgian Brewers point to the existing initiatives promoting sane and sensible drinking (including the designated driver or BOB campaign for road safety). However, they find that these efforts do not go far enough and are looking around for new initiatives, targeting alcohol use and abuse at work. With this in mind they now invite consultation with all concerned authorities, public and private, in order to proceed to preventive actions.

The complete study and/or the abstract can be obtained via order from the site of the Hoger Instituut van de Arbeid:
http://www.hiva.be/publicatie/nl/2679/publicatie/
http://www.hiva.be/publicatie/nl/2680/publicatie/

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