PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sean Haley, Professor at CUNY School of Public Health, on Alcohol Policy and Public Health
1:59:21
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3 min
Professor Sean Haley's testimony, delivered by proxy, highlights the significant public health impact of alcohol consumption in New York City and State. He emphasizes the need for increased attention to alcohol-related harms within the Healthy NYC initiative and proposes policy recommendations to address these issues.
- Alcohol-related deaths in New York State exceed 8,000, with over 2,000 in New York City alone
- Alcohol consumption leads to more emergency room visits than any other substance in NYC
- The economic cost of excessive drinking in New York State is estimated at $24 billion annually
- Recommendations include increasing alcohol taxes, reducing alcohol advertising to youth, and adding alcohol as a standalone category in the Healthy NYC plan
Sean Haley (via proxy)
1:59:21
Good morning, chairperson Shulman and members of the city council committee on health.
1:59:24
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your oversight of the city's healthy NYC initiative.
1:59:29
My name is Bernard O'Brien.
1:59:30
I'm here to testify I'm sorry, present the testimony of professor Sean Haley at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health.
1:59:36
Professor Haley sends his regrets that he's unable to attend.
1:59:39
CUNY School of Public Health, in coordination with other entities, has been working to create an alcohol policy prevention framework for the state of New York.
1:59:47
Overarching goal is to reduce excessive drinking and related harms in our city and state.
1:59:51
Despite their contribution to morbidity and mortality, the harms associated with alcohol consumption often fly under the radar in discussions of public health policy.
2:00:00
Importantly, alcohol use had increased over the due 2 decades before the pandemic, and there was a doubling of alcohol related mortality across the United States.
2:00:09
We'd ask you to consider the following.
2:00:11
According to the CDC, there are now over 8,000 deaths attributed to alcohol in New York state.
2:00:16
Of these, more than 2,000 deaths in New York City were attributed to alcohol with hundreds of such deaths stemming from liver disease, alcohol related psychiatric disorders, accidents, and alcohol poisonings.
2:00:28
Numerous homicides, suicides, and occurrences of child maltreatment were also linked to alcohol consumption.
2:00:34
New York City DOHMH reports that alcohol consumption leads to far more hospital emergency room visits than any other substances.
2:00:43
In 2020, the roughly a 104,000 emergency room visits attributed to alcohol consumption exceeded the combined number of such visits linked to opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and other substances.
2:00:57
Binge drinking, in in the last 30 days is reported by nearly an average of nearly 20% of adults in New York state.
2:01:06
Adjusted for inflation, CDC reports that excessive drinking in New York State imposes 24,000,000,000 annually in economic costs or roughly 1200 in preventable costs per per year.
2:01:17
Many of these are absorbed by the city's public health system.
2:01:21
Alcohol related harms also just
Lynn Schulman
2:01:25
You could just sum up Yeah.
Sean Haley (via proxy)
2:01:26
We're we're gonna we're gonna I I presented written testimony.
2:01:29
We're gonna, provide, forthcoming, recommendations.
2:01:33
We would in which we include increasing alcohol taxes to encourage discourage excessive consumption by shifting prices upward.
2:01:42
It's interesting that New York City's local alcohol tax has not been adjusted for inflation since 1980.
2:01:49
The New York City, independent budget office reports that adjusting the city's tax on beer and liquor for inflation and extending the tax to include wine could generate for the city over 3 $30,000,000 annually.
2:02:02
So we're gonna be submitting additional recommendations, including reducing, alcohol advertising seen by youth, and placing a moratorium on New York state laws that increase alcohol availability until such impacts can be measured.
2:02:17
So we we finally would say that, we we recommend that the council add alcohol as a stand alone category within the city's the Healthy NYC plan, and we look forward to submitting, additional recommendations to you next month.
2:02:32
So on behalf of professor Haley, thank you again very much for this opportunity.
