Taiwan should raise the legal drinking age to 21 to mitigate the health risks associated with alcohol, medical experts told an academic conference yesterday.
National Taiwan University professor emeritus of medicine Wang Cheng-yi (王正一) said alcohol consumption is linked to more than 200 diseases, including cirrhosis, liver cancer, stomach cancer and bowel cancer.
Drinking is also correlated to increased risks of traffic incidents and mental illness, which take a toll on society, he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2021 revealed that 14.1 percent of junior high-school students and 30.6 percent of senior high-school students had recently consumed alcohol, he said.
The same survey conducted in 2022 showed that 38.5 percent of college students had recently consumed alcohol, including 14.4 percent who drank an unhealthy amount, Wang said.
Starting drinking earlier in life is linked to increased risks of developing alcohol-related health problems later, he said.
Citing medical research in the US, Wang said raising the legal drinking age to 21 is correlated with lower rates of alcohol consumption and drunk driving-related traffic incidents, he said.
The Japanese government’s ban on drinking by people younger than 20 years old achieved similar results, Wang said, adding that Japan had retained the legal drinking age despite later reducing the age of majority to 18.
Taiwan’s drinking age of 18 could encourage adolescents one or two years younger than the legal limit to consume alcohol, while regulations do not stipulate measures for the prevention of underage drinking, he said.
Alcohol-related diseases cost the National Health Insurance NT$5.3 billion (US$161.01 million) annually, while all alcohol-related health problems, including those caused as a result of drunk driving, cost it NT$53 billion, National Health Insurance Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Lian-yu (陳亮妤) said.
Studies conducted by WHO and the US government suggest that every US$1 spent on preventing alcohol use saves US$7 by reducing illnesses, domestic violence and traffic incidents, she said.
Taiwan has 138 alcohol addiction treatment clinics, she said, adding that people who wish to seek help with alcohol addiction can obtain up to NT$40,000 in medical subsidies per year.
Ninety percent of people who undergo treatment reported cessation or reduction of alcohol consumption, she said.
On Friday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol sold in the US should carry labels that clearly state the substance is a leading cause of cancer.
Alcohol consumption is to blame for nearly 1 million preventable cancer cases in the US over the past decade, he said, adding that about 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases.
Additional reporting by AP
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS