To the editor: The latest op-ed by visitor contributor Emma Fenske equating reasonable alcohol consumption with smoking cigarettes is a grasp class in statistical sleight of hand (“Alcohol should be marginalized like smoking,” July 2). She ought to frankly know higher.
By breathlessly evaluating the 2, she fails to tell readers that absolutely the most cancers threat from reasonable alcohol consumption is minuscule. It’s also remarkably handy to omit a latest Biden administration-funded study concluding that reasonable drinkers truly expertise decrease all-cause mortality than abstainers. Leaving out contradictory information to suit a story does a profound disservice to your readers.
Widespread sense dictates a rational method. The right response to alcohol abuse is warning in opposition to overconsumption and treating habit, not claiming that wine, safely loved moderately for millennia, must be handled like tobacco. The push to demonize reasonable consumption is as unscientific as it’s exhausting. Readers deserve information, not selectively curated panic and agendas.
Tom Warik, Salem, Ore.
This author is government director of the Nationwide Assn. of Wine Retailers.
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To the editor: Thanks for the latest op-ed concerning alcohol use.
Sure, there was a time when smoking was utterly acceptable and even thought-about a ceremony of passage to maturity. Around 1965, the devastating results of smoking turned a part of the nationwide consciousness. Alcohol use is in an analogous place at this time.
For essentially the most half, folks aren’t conscious of the long-term well being issues alcohol presents, even for reasonable drinkers. I hope the time is coming when the promoting of alcohol is not going to be allowed. There will probably be great opposition to any legislation having to do with this topic, however all of us have to simply accept that it’s now not only a matter of the social issues ingesting can convey. No, it’s simply plain unhealthy in your well being too.
Peter Marquard, Northridge
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To the editor: Fenske fires the most recent salvo within the battle on the straightforward pleasures of life. Now it’s wine that we should stigmatize and ban. Wine that, since historic instances — from Mesopotamia to early China, from the dinner tables of Mediterranean peoples to the wine-tasting vineyards of Napa Valley — “maketh glad the center of man” (Psalm 104:15). As soon as once more, we’re to sheepishly settle for the “newest analysis” purportedly exhibiting that the wine we now have loved moderately, well being and good cheer all these centuries is definitely so dangerous to us that we should begin affixing warning labels to it and ultimately illegalize it solely.
It might be that, given our puritanical heritage, we Individuals view alcohol as tempting forbidden fruit and abuse it greater than societies with a wiser conventional appreciation of the nice issues of this world. We must always then simply modify our philosophy and study to take pleasure in moderately relatively than give up to concern. “Keep secure” and “zero tolerance” have develop into our society’s watchwords. As a substitute, we should always respect, take pleasure in and share.
Robert Rakauskas, Winnetka
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To the editor: Fenske makes good factors concerning the parallels between smoking and ingesting. Nevertheless, she overlooks probably the most vital elements that made smoking much less socially acceptable: that tobacco smoke, to be blunt, stinks. A single cigarette produces an odor that’s painfully apparent and offensive to each close by nonsmoker. For that cause, eating places have been among the first public locations the place smoking was prohibited. Even so, attaining the complete indoor-smoking bans which might be widespread at this time took a long time — they usually aren’t but common all over the place. The truth that these bans made smoking inconvenient was undoubtedly useful in motivating folks to surrender the behavior.
In distinction, an alcohol drinker doesn’t robotically impinge on the expertise of the folks round them, nor do they trigger well being issues like second-hand smoke. Thus, the first inhibitor for alcohol use boils all the way down to “it’s not good for you.” There was some small movement (e.g., retaining a whiskey bottle within the workplace has develop into much less acceptable), however I wouldn’t count on to see a major social change within the subsequent 20 years.
Geoff Kuenning, Claremont
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To the editor: This op-ed is totally proper.
It’s absurd that we have a good time and ritualize the consumption of this most harmful and addictive drug. Alcohol doesn’t simply trigger well being issues; 21% of individuals in state prisons and native jails dedicated their crimes inebriated.
Why did the American alcoholic beverage business spend greater than $12.8 billion on advertising in 2023? As a result of it really works! You possibly can’t attend an athletic occasion with out its message. Probably the most ridiculous: “Drink responsibly.” Alcohol and duty are opposites.
We have to repair this.
Walter Clark, Indian Wells
