Researchers at the University of Helsinki, National Research Institute of Legal Policy and The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, Finland, have found that cutting excise duty on retail sales of alcohol can have immediate repercussions on a nation's health.
When this was done in Finland in 2004, the rate of alcohol-related sudden deaths rose by 17%, or 8 deaths per week, according to a study published in the March issue of ADDICTION.
The Finnish government was responding to an EU-wide harmonisation of travellers' allowances in January 2004, and introduced the tax cuts to protect domestic sales. Finns were crossing the border to buy cheap booze in Estonia, which was set to join the European Union in May of that year. Finland, which operates a state retail monopoly on alcohol, carried out a pre-emptive measure in March to prevent excessive imports and thereby drastic losses in tax revenues. Sales tax was lowered by an average of 33% - much more for spirits (44%) - and retail prices fell by around 22% in consequence. As expected, sales - and therefore consumption levels - rose immediately. Recorded domestic sales in March 2004 were 50% higher than a year earlier, and total per capita consumption increased by 10% from 9.4 litres in 2003 to 10.3 litres in 2004.
In health terms, this had a dramatic and immediate effect on the rate of sudden deaths while under the influence of alcohol, such as accidents, suicides, homicides and alcoholic poisonings. Researchers analysed post-mortem forensic toxicology data (blood alcohol levels) over a 15-year period to account for seasonal and long-term variations. From March 2004 they identified a rise in alcohol-positive sudden deaths of 17% - an estimated eight additional deaths per week.