Schools urged to halt training of teachers about alcohol funded by the drink industry 

To date, 15,000 students are estimated to have been educated with resources from the Drinkaware schools’ programme. File picture

Schools are to be urged to avoid sending their teachers to training developed by Drinkaware, an organisation that receives most of its funding through donations from the alcohol industry.

The Irish Community Action on Alcohol Network (I-CAAN) is to write to schools this week, highlighting what it sees as key issues with Drinkaware providing education-based programmes for children and young people.

As previously reported by the Irish Examiner, Drinkaware is continuing to offer its programmes to schools against the advice of the HSE, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Taoiseach, and the Minister for Education.

To date, 15,000 students are estimated to have been educated with resources from the Drinkaware schools’ programme.

According to I-CAAN: “There are some areas that should be considered ‘no-go’ areas for the alcohol industry and where the advice, the evidence, and the conflicts of interests between the profit-driven motives of the industry and public health are clear.

“This includes industry support for, or provision of, education-based programmes for children and young people, and the use of alcohol-industry-developed or alcohol-industry-funded materials in any educational setting.”

In March 2022, I-CAAN launched the ‘i-Mark’, an initiative requiring organisations to commit to analysing and understanding the conflict of interest between health and wellbeing and the motives of alcohol industry-funded charities, corporate social responsibility activities, and interest groups.

The letter goes on to add that a recent UK study published this year analysed three sources of teaching materials developed with alcohol industry funding.

This included Drinkaware for Education, The Smashed Project, funded by Diageo, and Talk About Alcohol, developed by Alcohol Education Trust.

“A number of issues were common across all three,” the letter states.

“They all promote children’s familiarisation with and normalisation of alcohol as a ‘normal’ adult consumer product which children must learn about and master how to use ‘responsibly’.

“They contain similar misinformation to the publicly-focussed materials promoted by industry sources, including selective presentation and omission of risks. Some of the programme materials appear to include prompts to drinking.”

Drinkaware Ireland said it has no staffing, structure or governance relationship with The Drinkaware Trust. It added its work and programmes, including the Alcohol Education Programme – are scoped, created and delivered by Drinkaware Ireland’s team and are independent of Drinkaware Trust’s programmes.

In a previous statement to this paper, a spokeswoman for Drinkaware Ireland said its objective is “to benefit the community by preserving and promoting public health and socially responsible behaviour by reducing alcohol misuse and related harm”.

Drinkaware’s programme is “unequivocally” about prevention, and it “continually and publicly asserts that alcohol has no place in childhood.”

She said Drinkaware is an independent charity ratified by two State institutions: the Charities Regulator and the Revenue Commissioners.

“It is our collective duty to support evidence-informed preventions of alcohol misuse and this programme is one such proven prevention.”

This article was updated on Nov 11, 2022 to include a statement from Drinkaware Ireland that its programmes are independent of (the UK's) Drinkaware Trust's programmes.