Australians urged to do Dry July for cancer research as alcohol rises during Covid

The proportion of Australians who drank alcohol increased by nearly 320,000 people in the 12 months to December 2020, April data by Roy Morgan shows.

The rise, totalling about 13.34 million Australians aged 18 years and older who consumed alcohol in an average four-week period, represented a 0.8 per cent increase to 67 per cent.

It was the first year-over-year increase since 2016 when 69.6 per cent of Australians drank alcohol, up 0.7 per cent on 2015.

Among those participating in the Dry July's foundation push this year to abstain from alcohol is Canberra woman Bryony Lowe.

Ms Lowe said her motivation was to raise awareness that lung cancer could affect non-smokers after her partner, Ben Sharp, died from it during the peak of Covid in April last year.

Mr Sharp was a non-smoker and only 42 when he tragically died.

"People tend to think it's only a smoker's disease. Yes, it can be but it doesn't discriminate because Ben was such a fit and active person before he started getting pains in his bones, pelvis and back," Ms Lowe said.

"The only reason we found was when he started getting vision loss, which lasted only a couple of seconds each episode but it'd freak him out."

After numerous tests in NSW and Canberra, the family went to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne before Mr Sharp's death.

"He was just really unlucky. Our kids had to witness him go down really quickly."

Ms Lowe described him as a "very caring man and he'd give the shirt off his back to help people".

"We couldn't have a proper funeral for him because of Covid," she said.

"Not a day goes by that we and his best mates don't think about him."

As for the broader message about alcohol, Ms Lowe said she also wanted her participation this year to change the nation's culture when it comes to drinking.

"If you're in a position to help then please donate to the foundation because there are a lot of families who can't afford the travel for treatment," she said.

Elsewhere in the ACT, Canberra Hospital Foundation is a beneficiary of Dry July and it directly supports the Canberra Region Cancer Center.

Driving the consumption rise in 2020 were wine, spirits and ready-to-drinks, which all increased between 1-4 per cent, the Roy Morgan data shows.

However, long-term downward trends for other categories continued with fewer Australians drinking beer, cider, liqueurs and fortified wines.

Beer led the decline and was down from 7.35 million to 6.87 million Australians in 2019-20.

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The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows that while alcohol consumption between 2001-19 remained at risky levels for 18-24 year olds, the proportion of people drinking more than lifetime risk guidelines had been declining.

Devin Bowles, CEO of Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT, said alcohol dependency could become a problem for people, sometimes without them realising it was happening.

"We have concerns that some people may have increased their alcohol consumption starting in the lockdown period in Canberra and are having difficulty reducing it again," Mr Bowles said.

Mr Bowles said that people delay seeking help too often, usually for decades.

"The less we drink, the less health risk we have from alcohol. Alcohol increases the risk of accidents in the short-term and it increases a wide range of long-term health risks like cancer and weight gain.

"There is no shame in dependency and Canberra has several high-quality, non-judgemental alcohol treatment providers if Dry July raises any concerns for people."

The National Health and Medical Research Council released new alcohol consumption guidelines in December 2020 to help Australians.

"To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four on any one day," the council stated.

"To prevent harm from alcohol to their unborn child, women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy should not drink alcohol.

"For women who are breastfeeding, not drinking alcohol is safest for their baby."

Australia's chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said that there were more than 4000 alcohol-related deaths in Australia and more than 70,000 hospital admissions every year. "Alcohol is linked to more than 40 medical conditions, including many cancers," he said.

"Following the guidelines keeps the risk of harm from alcohol low, but it does not remove all risk.

Healthy adults drinking within the guideline recommendations have less than a 1-in-100 chance of dying from an alcohol-related condition."

A 2020 research about the UK Dry January campaign found that people who participated in the initiative reported improved mental wellbeing, drinking less and improved control over drinking.

As of Tuesday, nearly 27,000 people have signed up for Dry July and about $2.9 million has been raised.

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