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PORTSIDE CULTURE

WILL CONGRESS FORCE THIS CONTROVERSIAL ALCOHOL STUDY TO STOP?  
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Esther Mobley
October 17, 2024
San Francisco Chronicle
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_ The upcoming revision of U. S. Dietary Guidelines is unfolding amid
a shifting global sentiment toward drinking. Members of Congress are
calling for a suspension of a controversial committee that could
recommend Americans reduce alcohol consumption. _

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, co-wrote a letter to two federal agencies
calling for the suspension of an alcohol review., Alvin A.H.
Jornada/Special to The Chronicle

 

Members of Congress are calling for a suspension of a controversial
committee that could recommend that Americans reduce their alcohol
consumption.

For months, alcohol industry voices have expressed concerns that
scientists on this committee — part of the review process for the
upcoming revision of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines — have demonstrated
biases against alcohol, which they say could render any
recommendations they make untrustworthy.

Now, it appears that a sizable number of U.S. representatives agree.
“There’s a strong feeling among my colleagues that this is a
concern,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, told the Chronicle. Last week,
he co-wrote a letter to the heads of two federal agencies asking for
the alcohol-review committee to be suspended. It was signed by 113 of
his congressional colleagues.

“When these studies are undertaken, they need to be done in an open
transparent process, and I don’t think you stack the deck,”
Thompson said. But in this case, he wrote in the letter, the
scientists on the committee in question “were not appropriately
vetted for conflicts of interest.”

Thompson’s letter is a significant development in what has become
the major issue looming over the beleaguered wine industry this year.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines is due for a review in 2025, an effort for
which Congress appropriated $1.3 million. For this revision, federal
agencies instituted an unprecedented extra step. In addition to the
typical review by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and
Medicine, the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services
commissioned a study to look at alcohol consumption specifically. This
second study falls under the purview of the Interagency Coordinating
Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD).

One of Congress’ concerns with this set-up is the redundancy of
having two separate studies. “We’re paying twice for it,” said
Thompson. Moreover, he said, the ICCPUD committee — unlike the
standard process undertaken by the National Academies — is not
accountable to Congress. “This duplicative study has been
commissioned without any congressional input, without transparency,
without any type of public knowledge or vetting of the board
members,” he said.

All six scientists on the ICCPUD committee are experts in
substance-use disorders, which has drawn criticism from wine industry
advocates. They argue that any study of alcohol consumption should
include input from cardiologists and other experts who can examine
alcohol’s effects beyond just chronic use. Some members of the panel
have also received funding from anti-alcohol groups.

Thompson characterized the ICCPUD panel as “secretive,” and it’s
worth noting that even some anti-alcohol groups have objected to the
lack of transparency around the committee’s formation and its work.
The possibility of bias informing public policy, Thompson said,
“should concern everybody, be it on alcohol consumption, egg
consumption or sun consumption.”

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines update is drawing particular scrutiny
because it is unfolding amid a shifting global sentiment toward
drinking. Last year, the World Health Organization declared that there
was “no safe level” of alcohol consumption. Although it appears
unlikely that the American guidelines will go so far as to mirror that
advisory exactly, there’s a widespread sense that the ICCPUD panel
might find the current levels of consumption considered safe by the
U.S. Dietary Guidelines — up to two drinks a day for men and one for
women — excessive.      

Of course, Thompson and some of his fellow representatives have their
own reasons to push back against a process that could result in
negative effects to the wine industry. His district includes the most
famous wine region in the country, and his co-author on last week’s
letter, Dan Newhouse, represents a major wine region in Washington
state, the Yakima Valley.

Still, Thompson said that gathering 113 signatures on short notice,
during a time when Congress’ attention was primarily directed toward
avoiding a government shutdown, was “pretty spectacular.” Now, he
waits for a response from Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack
and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

“We went through this in the 1990s, where there was a very
aggressive effort by the anti-alcohol community,” Thompson said.
“A lot of that was dampened because of scientific evidence that
suggested that they were off base. So these things never go away.”

Reach Esther Mobley: [email protected] Mobley joined the
San Francisco Chronicle in 2015 to cover California wine, beer and
spirits. She reports on the business of the state’s $55 billion wine
industry; reviews Bay Area wineries, wines and bars; and writes about
the effects of climate change on vineyards.

Previously Esther was an assistant editor at Wine Spectator magazine
in New York. She has worked harvest seasons at wineries in Napa Valley
and Argentina. She was the 2019 Feature Writer of the Year in the
Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards, and her work has
been recognized by organizations including the California News
Publishers Association, the Society for Features Journalism and the
Association of Food Journalists.

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