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Government to strengthen regulations on alcohol
By Kim Hyun-bin
The government is set to designate no drinking zones near public areas and government offices nationwide by 2020, as part of efforts to curb damage caused by intoxicated people.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently said it would seek to revise the National Health Promotion Act to designate alcohol-free zones similar to the current no smoking zones.
It plans to ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages in government offices, medical facilities and public spaces such as libraries, as well as near youth facilities including schools, kindergartens and daycare centers.
Local governments will also be allowed to designate parks and other public places as alcohol free areas through their own ordinances.
The government sought to ban drinking in public places previously in 2012 and 2015 as well, but scrapped the plan due to a public backlash.
"We believe the law revision will be passed due to high public support on drinking regulation these days," a ministry official said.
In a survey released in September, 94.3 percent of the respondents were in favor of banning drinking near schools while 93.2 percent said they had a bad experience with a drunk person.
The government also plans to apply stricter regulations on alcoholic beverage ads, to promote safe drinking and to better prevent drinking-related illnesses and injuries.
According to the plan, ads portraying models drinking alcohol will be banned. Most local breweries use K-pop stars or hot celebrities, with scenes of them drinking the products. ?
Currently, alcohol commercials are banned from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. only on television, but this will be extended to include internet protocol televisions (IPTV) and digital multimedia broadcasts (DMB). Also alcohol ads in public areas including subways, airports, harbors and commercial vehicles will be banned.
A recent study found that celebrities in ads attract young people to drinking.
The ministry is scheduled to submit the revised bill to the Assembly by early next year for implementation in the first half of 2020.
"The new policy aims to prevent young people and vulnerable social groups being exposed to the promotion of alcohol consumption. We will do our upmost efforts to enforce it," Vice Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said.
Drinking ban policies have become a worldwide trend. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 168 countries have enforced such policies, and among them 102 ban drinking in parks and on streets. In England, a person can be arrested for offensive drunken behavior.
In South Australia, a person can be fined for having an alcoholic beverage in certain public areas. Norway has banned all alcohol advertisements.
According to the WHO, over 3 million people die each year due to alcohol-induced problems worldwide, and it listed alcohol as one of the top carcinogens along with arsenic in cigarettes and cadmium.
According to Statistics Korea, a total of 4,809 Koreans died from alcohol-related causes in 2017, meaning 13 people a day. The death rate was the highest among those in their 50s, with 22.8 people out of every 100,000.
According to a National Health Insurance Service report, over 9.45 trillion won ($8.3 billion) of social costs were spent due to drinking-related problems here, more than smoking which caused spending of 7.12 trillion won and obesity, 6.76 trillion won.
The health ministry statistics shows that on average a man drinks over seven glasses and woman five per sitting. People who consume an average seven drinks or more for two days a week are considered to be heavy drinkers.
One out of every 10 Koreans in their 20s falls into the heavy drinker category; 20.2 percent of these are university students. Twenty percent of men between 30 and 50 are heavy drinkers as well as 10 percent of women in their 20s.
Data showed people had their first drink at 13.3 years old on average, nearly five years earlier than the legal age for drinking which is set at 19.
Koreans consumed 8.7 liters of alcohol in 2016, 0.5 liters higher than the OECD average.
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